Two weeks have passed, and we've spent our days clearing the Limptfert Dungeon.
And finally, the Rock Turtle dropped the 『Shellrock Shield』.
...Haa, about time.
"Uuuuuuuuhー..."
This shield was of incomparable rarity with the other Eko had, and since she got it, she was hugging it, not letting it go.
There was no problem after I gave the dropped shield to Eko. Extremely overjoyed, Eko was dancing and jumping around to the point where I worried if she would pass out due to the happiness.
The problem began after I said, "Give it to Yukari so that she can reinforce it", and Yukari approached to receive it. "Uuuuu", Eko held it tightly and threatened not to hand over the shield.
"Eko, I'm not trying to steal it. I'll just reinforce it."
"That's right, Eko. Even my Bow of the Blazing Wolf has become considerably stronger thanks to the reinforcement of Yukari. "
Yukari and Silvia tried to appease her.
In the past two weeks, among her [Blacksmith] skills, Yukari has given priority to "Performance Enhancement", and the other day she finally reached Grade 5. With "Performance Enhancement" at Grade 5, the correction of the enhancement success rate increases, and in addition, it is possible to perform advanced enhancements, that is one stage before the final stage. Therefore, Yukari has been very enthusiastic since she can finally play an active role as a blacksmith.
"Is it true...? "
"Yeah, of course. That's why, c'mon, please. "
"No! Her face is scary! "
It seems the cause was Yukari's enthusiasm. Certainly, it is normal for Eko to feel scared because of her cold expression. "I'll take it! ", it's hard not to think of her saying something like that. Be it your shield, or your head...
"...Master."
"Oh, don't worry about it. You give off a cold impression, but she knows that deep down you're a good person. So, it's okay."
"Umu, that's true. You're a cold-looking, jitty-eyed, wicked tongue poisonous woman, but if you look very closely, you're not that bad."
"I see, by the way Silvia-san, let's have a little talk later."
Since these two are good friends I can leave them alone... But I have to do something about Eko.
"Eko. We'll return it quickly. It will be fast."
"Uuuuー"
Eko looked at me while pressing her face onto the shield.
She looks almost like a cat that doesn't want to let go of her favorite toy. Is it some sort of beast people instinctive thing?
"...Well, it doesn't matter."
I decided to leave this matter for a while. After all, there's no particular need to rush it.
"For today, let's just go back to the inn. We'll have a strategic meeting at dinner."
After I told them that, we left the Limptfert Dungeon.
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Two hours later.
At the time of dinner, Eko came with her ears and tail down, and handed over the shield while saying "I'm sorry". Apparently, she 'forgot'.
"It can be helped that you couldn't restrain yourself, after all, you thought your first present would be taken away."
Silvia followed up. I see, it might indeed be an action specific to the demihumans.
"My bad Eko, it will be finished quickly and returned. Yukari, to the third stage, please. Use the reinforcement specialized in VIT."
"Yes. Right away."
I handed the shield to Yukari along with some instructions. With "Performance Enhancement"Grade 5, the reinforcement up to the third stage has a success rate of 94％→89％→84％, and additionally there's a status correction. By the way, if the reinforcement fails, the stage will return to zero, and there's a 25% chance that the equipment will be destroyed. I don't want it to fail as much as possible since I'm investing quite the amount of materials for the enhancement. In this case, a total of 14 'Rock Carapaces' dropped from the Rock Turtle are consumed. Each of them has a market price of 1.2 million CL.
"It's completed."
...But it seems it went well. As expected of the Grade 5 and the 『Blacksmith Master』-growth type. Excellent.
"As expected, thanks."
"No, it wasn't really much."
Yukari humbled herself without changing her expression. Recently, I've noticed that the tip of her ears move when she's happy, and redden whenever she's embarrassed. In 8 or 9 cases out of 10 she will show those reactions when I properly praise her. I can't help but to inwardly grin every time she's happy without being aware of that fact.
"Here, Eko."
"So fast! "
"Don't forget to thank Yukari."
"Yukari, thanks! "
Eko thanked Yukari with a huge smile on her face. Yukari just answered "You're welcome", without changing her expression, but the tips of her ears were twitching.
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"Change the base? "
"Yeah."
After dinner ended.
Silvia tilted her head and repeated my announcement.
"Why so? At the moment, we're able to make fast clears of the Limptfert Dungeon. The experience we earn is quite good too. And on top of that, how many tens of millions of CL have we stockpiled in Rock Carapaces…?"
We still had a large amount of Rock Carapaces, valued at 1.2 million CL each. Yukari warned me that if we tried to sell them all at once, we would obviously gather attention, therefore I've been selling them out gradually. But even then, each person's share of 20 million wasn't a laughing matter.
Yukari said "It's insane for a group to clear an intermediate dungeon at this speed". I thought that any person who was strong could do this much, but it seems I was mistaken. While being careful, the most they could do was once every three days. It was common sense for an adventurer that this was enough to make a living, and taking further risks was unnecessary. It seems that our team is the only one who clears it several times a day.
Overwhelming knowledge about the dungeon that allows easy clears, members prepared and with appropriate and high ranked skills and having the room to consider this "having fun". Silvia thinks that unless these three conditions are met, high speed clears are impossible. It might be as she says.
"There are three reasons. The first one is that the experience there is better than here."
"Ohh, I see."
Silvia nodded, adding that if that was the case, then it was okay. Because Silvia is making an effort to raise all the skills in [Archery] and [Magic Archery] to Grade 7, it is necessary to earn as much experience as possible. I, on the other hand, have only ranked up the main skills and left the rest at a lower rank. That's why I've been able to try my hand at [Swordsmanship] with a little experience to spare.
That's why Silvia has no room to spare like me, and really wants to earn more experience. It's natural that she agrees with me on this.
"The second, I want to make some armor with the materials from that dungeon."
"I see."
The dungeon's boss, where we'll head from now on, will drop a lot of 『Mithril』. Mithril equipment was the staple for intermediate to high players. It doesn't hurt to have some. And it's many times better than leather equipment.
And so, the last reason.
"And the third one, earn more money."
"I see... Wait a moment! "
Silvia was convinced, then immediately after she raised her voice.
"Do you want to earn more than now!? "
"Yeah. I'm thinking of buying a house."
"A house!? "
"A house, huh? "
"Housy! "
Everybody repeated my words. But I feel like there was a slightly different one mixed in.
"I want to build a stupidly expensive house on the outskirts of the capital to serve as the Firstest Team Base."
"Ohhh! "
When I declared so, Eko immediately raised a happy voice.
Although I never really used the housing system in the past, I noticed it was quite meaningful in this world. And since I'm going through the trouble, I might as well build a luxurious mansion. But for that reason, money is required.
"The target is 5 billion CL, and the method to earn it will be 『Mithril Alchemy』. Does anybody have any questions? "
While Silvia quickly stood up, Yukari calmly raised her hand.
"Okay, Silvia-kun."
"Why is the target 5 billion CL? "
"That's easy. The most expensive house in the capital was 2.5 billion CL. It's just twice that."
"..."
Silvia became silent with a face that showed she didn't understand the meaning.
A first-class mansion had a price as cheap as 2.5 billion CL. So, unless I spend at least 5 billion CL, I can't say that is the "house of the world's top". That's all there is to it.
"Next, Yukari-kun."
"Yes. What is Mithril Alchemy? "
"Good question."
Mithril Alchemy. That was a very famous money-making method in Mobius.
"Mithril can be procured from the intermediate dungeon 『Proline 』, which is near the blacksmithing town of 『Badgordo』. But, just selling it as is doesn't make a lot of money."
"Do you have some sort of plan? "
"Yeah. The mithril ore dropped by the boss Mithril Golem can be made into pure mithril using the [Blacksmith] skills "Smelting" and "Refining", and can be further processed into Mithril Alloy combining it with iron using "Manufacturing"."
"Mithril Alloy..."
Yeah, Mithril Alloy. An extremely strong and valuable alloy made by mixing mithril and iron in a 1:20 ratio. By the way, "Smelting" is the most efficient when doing 51 pieces of mithril ore at the time, and "Refining"is the most efficient when using 32 pieces of mithril at the time. By using just one of these processes, the profit becomes ten times bigger.
"Each of them, "Smelting", "Refining", and "Manufacturing"require 4th, 4th and 6th class respectively. I'll leave that to you Yukari."
"Certainly, Master. Leave it to me."
Yukari already has the required skill ranks for Mithril Alchemy. Everything is ready.
"Thanks, I'll be relying on you. I'll give you the recipe later."
When I thanked her, Yukari's ears got a little red, and she just replied with a "I'll be imposing on you", without changing her expression.
Ahhー...I wonder what is this? I can't help having fun. I will not stop.
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"...By the way, Second-dono."
"Huh? What happened? "
Along with a mysterious look, Silvia opened her mouth.
And then, she pointed out a "certain fact" that I had totally forgotten.
"The Proline Dungeon has never been cleared before."
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