NOVEL NEXT chapter 16
Chapter 16
“That woman earlier was incredibly beautiful. Is she Gaga-san’s girlfriend? Or what? Some sort of love triangle?”
“Hey, isn’t there a bit of an edge to your words? And if you’re calling her beautiful… never mind.”
I question Gaga-san about the beautiful woman from earlier as we sit around the dinner table.
Gaga-san is a man, after all.
I thought he’d talk happily when asked about a beautiful woman, but surprisingly, his expression was rather stern.
Maybe she’s not his girlfriend?
Oh, could it be an ex-fiancée he abandoned long ago?
Gaga-san might have some hidden depths!
“I don’t know what you’re thinking, but it’s not that kind of frivolous relationship, you know?”
“Then who is she?”
“She’s a customer.”
“Eh? A customer? That’s rare~”
Come to think of it, this is the first time I’ve seen a customer since I came to this workshop.
Apparently, Gaga-san usually supplies weapons and armor to the town’s general stores or the commerce guild when requested, but occasionally curious individuals like this appear and ask for custom equipment to be made.
And it seems that this time, one of these curious individuals has come.
“Well, even if she’s a customer, she’s the worst kind.”
“Why? If she drops some reward stones, you could buy mithril, right?”
“Are you an idiot? She shows up right when I’ve finally managed to make a [Crystal Steel Ingot] after all that effort, and has the nerve to say, ‘I want a sword made with that.’ She’s nothing but a nuisance customer.”
Wait a minute, that ingot…
“Isn’t that ingot for forging my sword? Why is that person arbitrarily requesting it?”
“I know, I know. Of course, I refused. I have a prior commitment, and it’s material that was brought to me, so I told her if she wants a sword, she should prepare her own materials. Then, maybe she gave up, because she left without a word. She was a creepy woman.”
Leaving without a word… That’s pretty rude…
“Well, don’t worry. I’m forging this sword for you. I wouldn’t sell it no matter how many reward stones I’m offered.”
“Well, I know you wouldn’t be swayed by reward stones, but what if that woman tried to seduce you? Gaga-san, you’ve been without a woman for a while, right? If she said something like, ‘You can do whatever you want with me~ Ooh~’, wouldn’t you fall for it immediately?”
“Hmph, I’ve learned recently that the more beautiful they are, the more disappointing they can be. I won’t fall for it, I’m telling you.”
Huh, that’s quite a statement.
But, well, if he thought I was beautiful, I’ll forgive him!
“Besides, I’m forging this sword with gratitude for someone who’s been cooking for me and helping with the magic sword creation lately. There’s only one person who can be the owner of this sword.”
Ah…
Um, he was grateful…?
“Well, it’s embarrassing when you say it to my face like that…”
“Yeah, be embarrassed! This is what happens when you make unnecessary comments!”
Damn it, Gaga-san, saying embarrassing things! Geez! I can’t even look you in the eye now!
“Still, this ingot is amazing. I feel like I could make something incredible with this.”
“Do you think you might be able to make a magic sword?”
“Maybe, just maybe. Well, even if it’s not a magic sword, it’ll definitely be a top-tier weapon. The difficulty in crafting it will be insanely high, though. I’m getting fired up…”
Gaga-san’s expression is sparkling like a child’s.
How nice.
I want to use the best materials to make the best things with my own hands someday too!
“If the crafting difficulty is high, you’ll want to concentrate on your work, right? Should I stay out of the workshop for a while?”
“Stay out… What will you do?”
“I’m planning to wander around outside gathering materials for [Alchemy] and [Compounding]. If you’re aiming to become a C-rank alchemist, should I gather materials for you too?”
“No, that’s fine. That kind of thing is meaningless unless you do it yourself. But if you’re offering to let me have the workshop to myself, that would be helpful.”
So even Gaga-san needs to concentrate to work on something like this.
I feel a bit anxious about when I’ll be able to handle [Crystal Steel] myself.
Isn’t this an item that shouldn’t be available in the early stages? Did the developers mess up?
Well, anyway, Gaga-san’s words have decided my plans for the near future.
I’m going to become a [Gathering] demon for a while!
■□■
Basically, the materials for [Compounding] are things like wild plants, mushrooms, animal bones, insects, insects, and more insects…
It seems that the basic principle is to draw out special effects by [Compounding] various naturally derived substances.
And while you can search for these materials directly with [Appraisal], if you have the [Gathering] skill, you can identify [Gathering] points.
Yes, if you use the [Gathering] skill there, you can randomly obtain materials available in that area!
So even someone like me who dislikes insects can accumulate insect carcasses in my [Storage] automatically by utilizing [Gathering] points!
That concludes this slightly useful [Gathering] skill information!
“But sometimes I really want to dump everything out of my [Storage] and burn it all…”
Hello there, feeling a bit gloomy.
It’s Yamamoto here.
Currently, I’m exploring the [Crystal Cave] while feeling depressed.
If [Compounding] mainly uses naturally derived materials, [Alchemy] primarily utilizes monster materials.
In other words, [Alchemy] involves defeating monsters, collecting drop items, and using those drop items.
Magic stones are the prime example of this.
And apparently, to raise [Alchemy] to C-rank, you need a lot of an item called [Slime Core], so I’ve come to the [Crystal Cave] to collect them.
The developers probably thought, “Slimes should be easy to kill instantly, and they’ll drop items frequently, so it’ll be easy to collect them. Let’s make the required number really high~”
But you know what?
Logically, there should only be one [Slime Core] per slime.
And slimes don’t have a habit of gathering in groups.
So, I’ve been wandering around the [Crystal Cave] for about three hours, finding slimes and defeating them, over and over again…
…and I’ve become depressed.
Plus, the battles end instantly with one spell!
I spend more time walking around searching than actually fighting!
Of course, the stress is piling up!
The developers really messed up here too!
They’re consistently inconsistent!
It gives me a strange sense of reassurance!
Even though it’s ironic!
“Hm? What’s that?”
Maybe because I was dragging my feet and looking down, I stop, sensing something odd.
There’s a white, translucent slime here?
“Um?”
Normal slimes usually have a muddy, sludge-like color because they’re constantly absorbing gravel or mud, but the slime I’ve found is white and semi-transparent. It’s very rare.
“Is it a subspecies or something?”
Well, I’ve never heard of monster subspecies existing.
Perhaps noticing me staring intently, the white slime starts moving hurriedly.
“Eh, it’s fast!”
Normal slimes move so slowly you’d want to yell “Are you a snail or what?!”, but this white slime defies that common sense with its quick movements.
Well, it’s fast for a slime, but not fast enough to surpass my agility.
Anyway, I start chasing it at a light jog while using [Appraisal] on the white slime.
▶Appraising ???.
▶[Appraisal] successful.
Name: (Unnamed)
Race: Crystal Slime
Gender: None
Age: ■ years old
LV: ■
HP: 10/10
MP: ■/■
Physical Attack: 25
Magical Attack: 23
Physical Defense: ■
Magical Defense: 321
Vitality: 1
Agility: 67
Intuition: ■
Spirit: ■
Fate: ■
Unique Skill: (None)
Race Skills: [Magic Nullification]
Race Skills: [Magic Nullification] [Spell Nullification]
Common Skills: [Fire Magic] Lv1
“Huh? It’s not a subspecies? Is it a new type of slime?”
This is the first time I’ve seen this in the [Crystal Cave], but it seems to be a different kind of slime from the normal ones.
Maybe it’s semi-transparent because its body is made of crystal?
And that magical defense value!
An astounding 300+!
There’s a fortress tougher than me right here!
And on top of that, it nullifies magic and spells? How badly do the developers want us to defeat this thing physically?
For now, I switch to my longsword while chasing it and try to slash at the Crystal Slime, but it dodges smoothly as if reading my movements.
Argh! You cheeky slime…!
“Then how about this! [Earth Wall]!”
The ground rises up to cut off the Crystal Slime’s escape route, quickly surrounding it on three sides with walls.
[Earth Wall], learned at [Earth Magic] Lv2, is a spell that deforms the ground to create walls. It’s originally meant to act as a shield against ranged attacks.
But depending on how you use it, you can block paths like this!
As the Crystal Slime bounces off the wall and stops moving, I launch my all-out attack!
Clang!
“It’s hard…”
This is just like…
It’s as hard as the Crystal Dragon.
As I grimace at my slightly numb hand that felt no response, the Crystal Slime shoots a [Fireball] at me!
“That was close!? You little-!”
For a slime, it sure is intent on killing me!
Boing! Boing!
“Oh? You’ve stopped running and want to fight me? Alright, I’ll take you on…!”
And so, an intense battle (which would be about 108 pages long in manga form) unfolds between me and the Crystal Slime, but since there weren’t any particularly exciting scenes, I’ll skip the details.
“I won…!”
In the end, I prevailed in the grueling battle, whittling down the Crystal Slime’s HP to zero! Well, it was only 10 HP to begin with!
▶Gained 2024 experience points.
▶Gained 7 reward stones.
▶Obtained Crystal Steel.
▶Yamamoto has leveled up.
▶[Balance] has been activated.
Adjusting the balance of acquired items.
▶Additional 2017 reward stones gained.
“That’s a lot of experience! And Crystal Steel…”
Ah, I see…
I thought I couldn’t get any more [Crystal Steel] after defeating the Crystal Dragon, but it seems you can replenish it from Crystal Slimes too.
Despite that, the spawn rate and method of defeating them are quite severe, showing the developers’ attitude of “It’s a rare item, so we won’t make it easy.” It makes me involuntarily smile darkly.
Well, I have plenty of [Crystal Steel] in stock, so it might be good to tell Gaga-san about this.
I’ve got a nice souvenir story to share.
“I’ve got a nice souvenir story, but I still need 92 more [Slime Cores]…”
Developers, your game balance is still off!