Chapter 575 - Chapter 513: Understanding, Deconstruction, Reconstruction
Saturday
It was Saturday afternoon.
Rain still hung over the island, making me worry about the live stream later—but there wasn’t much I could do except keep moving. So, back to work carving the wooden statue of Sweee.
Mion had the day off too, no lessons scheduled. She was hanging out with Ato, sewing some cushions together.
Meanwhile, White Dragon Princess-sama was taking her nap, and El-san was keeping watch nearby, so...
Calling on summoning magic seems out of the question…
\"Yeah, that makes sense.\"
I was explaining to Bell-san and Seth what had happened last night—unlocking Transference and Teleportation, and gaining the Summoning Magic skill.
Apparently, when the World Announcement went out, they'd been exploring the research lab at the southern island's mining facility. They'd figured it was probably me again and decided to check it later.
\"Are there other players who’ve maxed out Taming skill?\"
I thought I’d hit the cap on Taming Skill around the end of June. It’d been nearly two months since then, so maybe others had caught up too.
\"Hmm. A contact of mine at the Silver Manor is in a guild limited to Taming skill users. Their guild master has already reached the maximum level.\"\p>
\"Ohhh.\"\
\"What about Skill Level Cap Breakthrough, though?\" Mion chimed in.
\"She said she tried various methods but couldn’t do it. She even said she’s been dying to see what you’d pull off… I mean, waiting eagerly, of course.\"\
Ehhh…
That guild master apparently partnered with powerful birds of prey like Wistahawk and Mistfalcon.
She’d even tested if specialty gloves like Egaake might provide a skill boost, but every attempt failed—no modifiers applied at all.
\"Huh. So no one's broken the cap? And skills like Material Processing—how are you even supposed to cap-break something like that?\"
\"Fascinating indeed.\"\
Maybe only skills with higher-tier versions can achieve a cap break?
Either way, someone more thorough than me would probably figure it out eventually. No point stressing over it now.
\"Still, it’s surprising that Teleportation and Transfer have cooldowns balancing them out.\"\
\"If they’d balanced it with MP costs instead, people might just stockpile magic crystals by the mountainload.\"\
\"That’s true—but if two people can use Transfer magic, couldn’t they shuttle each other back and forth?\"\
Well, I guess you’d have to bring along two mages just for that purpose…
\"Players who master all three rare skills—Spatial Magic, Barrier Magic, and Gravity Magic—up to level 7? I doubt we’ll see many like that in the future.\"\
\"That alone takes 27 SP. Even for pure mage builds like mine, reaching Teleportation is still a long way off…\"\
\"Right?\"\
\"Yes.\"\
...
..
.
\"Alright! What do you think? The main body’s done—just the wings left.\"\
\"It’s adorable!\"\
\"~♪~\"\
Got the thumbs-up from both Mion and Sweee. Now, just needed to craft the wings—but that meant heading to the forge.
\"Alright. Let’s go.\"\
Come to think of it, Azure-sama had given me the remains of the Polymo Golem—the larger one, which she’d finished investigating. Need to put that to good use too…
\"Waf!\"\
\"Oh, you all coming too?\"\
\"Wafun!\" \"\"Bau!\"\"
The forge work wasn’t anything loud or disruptive, so they could stay nearby.
The weather outside was the real concern…
\"Oh, hey—it stopped raining.\"\
\"Ah, then I’ll go tend the flower beds with Sweee-chan and the others.\"\
Not sure if it's just because it’s a game, but it dries quickly after rain. A nice touch.
Looking at the sky, it seemed like we’d have sun by the time we got back. Hopefully the live stream wouldn’t get rained out.
\"Alright. See you later.\"\
\"Yep. Come back safe!\"\
Pochi shot ahead, with Leda and Roy scrambling after him—me following at a slower pace.
The game’s seasons synced with real life, so summer was nearing its end.
Though, knowing September, we’d probably still get hit with some brutal residual heat…
\"Waf~\"\
\"Nya!\"\
\"Thanks as always.\"\
Greeting the Cait Sith near the church who were cleaning up after the rain.
Passed by the stables—noticed Rigel was gone, but he came running from behind the building.
\"Mion and the others are in the backyard. You can all go play together.\"\
\"Buruuun!\" \"\"\"Nya~\"\"\"
After waving off Rigel and the Cait Sith, I entered the ruins and headed down to the excavation site first.
The iron, copper, and light silver ore nodes had respawned, so I quickly gathered some and dumped them into the Ancient Magic Furnace.
We still had plenty of ingots in stock, but better safe than caught short in an emergency.
\"You guys can do your own thing. Oh—and don’t go near the firebed.\"\
\"Wafun!\"\
Leaving Pochi curled up in a corner of the forge, I got to work.
\"Alright, let’s start with the wings themselves.\"\
First, I carefully polished the raw crystal ore I’d gotten from the quest, isolating only the clean, transparent sections. Then, time to test my idea.
\"
Drained a huge chunk of MP, and the crystal shattered completely.
Not unexpected, really. So onto the next method.
\"
Transformed the crystal into a fine, powdery substance. Then—
\"
Successfully reformed it into a solid plate, roughly 5mm thick!
Turned out even better than expected, though it took a serious MP toll.
[Alchemy Skill level increased!]
Huh? Why did Alchemy level up?
\"Well, whatever.\"\
The finished crystal plate held up fine when I tapped it gently.
When I squeezed it firmly with both hands… yeah, it cracked. Figured.
But this should be sturdy enough for the wing structure. Now for the frame.
...
..
.
\"Shou-kun?\"\
\"Huh? Oh, what’s up?\"\
\"It’s been over an hour. Do you want to keep going a bit longer?\"\
\"Ah…\"\
After shaping the crystal wing body, I’d started crafting the outer frame with green gold steel. Turns out it was trickier than I’d thought—and once I got absorbed, it was hard to stop.
\"What should we do?\"\
\"Let’s head back for now.\"\
I’d made a few frame variations—better to show them to Mion and Sweee first.
Minor adjustments based on feedback could just as easily be done back at the mansion.
\"Pochi, Leda, Roy. Time to go home.\"\
\"Wafun!\" \"\"Bau!\"\"