kscans

Chapter 34 - A Vista of Spoils

"................Wow."

A voice so drained of energy it sounded as if all was lost. In the desert, which had become eerily quiet compared to a moment ago, even such a hoarse whisper echoed clearly.

Two shadows stood in the now-still field. One was, of course, me. The other was Sora-san, who had come running in response to my request for help.

"This is... this is................"

I had an inkling of how she would react when I sent the message with a heavy heart... but seeing the girl now covering her face with both hands in despair, even I couldn't shake the feeling that I had really gone too far.

Before us, who stood frozen, was a scene that should have been a uniform expanse of sand, now filled to the brim with red—countless drop items scattered about, so many that I couldn't even be bothered to count them.

The spoils of this game are directly deposited into the inventory, but if the maximum capacity is exceeded, they are apparently dropped at your feet or in a nearby empty space. For whatever reason, materials and items for selling were set to be much lighter than equipment... but...

"Yeah... I got a little carried away because it was so much fun..."

On top of my already maxed-out inventory, I went on a reckless hunt for large enemies—and this disaster is the result.

My inventory, already strained by excessive weapons and armor, filled up in the first few minutes. The spoils from the moray fishing that continued for over an hour after that were all scattered on the sand that had become our battlefield.

This is truly a case of not having a place to step—I'm not sure exactly how many [Desert Serpent]s I sent to their bloody end, but judging by this scene, it was probably more than ten or twenty. I'm a little horrified at my own actions.

And if even I'm horrified, then I can only imagine what Sora is feeling.

"A little...? A little? ...I see, a little. It seems your definition of 'a little' and mine are quite different, Haru-san?"

Sora slowly lowered her hands from her face and looked around the cluttered desert with a sluggish movement. I felt an indescribable fear in her eyes, which seemed somewhat clouded.

"By the way, how long were you hunting for?"

No matter if I say a short time or a long time, that question will just lead to me being looked at with disgust in a different form, right?

"A-About an hour..."

"An hour..."

See, Sora-san covered her face again.

It's not that I think I'm doing anything wrong, but I can understand how Sora feels. She's currently stuck in a rut trying to switch to close combat—to have such a huge victory paraded in front of her like this must be painful.

I had no choice but to do it... but maybe I did something cruel after all.

"What did you do in an hour to... No, it's fine, I don't want to hear it."

I opened my mouth to offer a half-hearted explanation of my train hunting, but Sora shook her head and stopped me—her words sounded like she was sulking, but from the tone of her voice, she seemed to have regained some of her composure.

I, who had been secretly terrified, let out a sigh of relief.

"Well then, let's start picking them up... I don't think we can fit all of them, though."

As Sora said with a wry smile, even for her, who is lightly equipped and can reduce the number of healing items she carries thanks to her own healing magic, there's a limit.

I doubt we can pick up even half of these drops that stretch as far as the eye can see... I'm starting to feel a little wasteful, but I'll just have to chalk it up as the price of my unplanned hunt.

"Sorry for taking up your time... It's not much of a payment, but feel free to keep as much as you like. No, actually, please do."

For the sake of reducing my own guilt.

"Ahaha... Well then, I won't hold back."

As she said that, Sora showed a slightly troubled expression.

"I haven't started crafting equipment yet... Should I ask that 'master' you're indebted to, Haru-san?"

She said that she had been selling most of her spoils so far, leaving only a certain number, so she didn't know what to do with them.

"That should be fine, right? Besides, I don't know any other production NPCs besides the old man..."

For a moment, Kagura-san's face came to mind in addition to the NPC, but I felt hesitant to bring materials from a beginner area to a master artisan who was so far ahead of me.

"Well then, could you introduce me?"

"My pleasure—oh, wait, the 'Anima' quest... doesn't it trigger automatically when you meet an NPC craftsman?"

I was about to nod in agreement to Sora's request when I realized a problem.

In my case, the quest to procure materials came up naturally in the flow of conversation—but it seems that was a fixed event that occurs when a player visits an NPC craftsman for the first time.

The introduction may vary from person to person, but the general flow is almost the same. By obtaining the specified materials and completing the quest, you can have the most suitable equipment for that player created.

The problem is that the selection of the "suitable equipment" is completely up to the system, and you can't choose the general category yourself. In other words, if it's a sword, you can specify whether it's a dagger or a longsword, but you can't change the 'sword' category itself.

Currently, Sora is dressed as a swordsman with light leather armor and a straight sword, but her skill tree is still only the shortbow tree, and her other skills are a mix of support buffs and healing magic.

If Sora were to take on the 'Anima' quest in her current state, it's unlikely that she would be offered a close-combat type of equipment. For that reason, we had decided to hold off on the 'Anima' gacha until she had at least unlocked the close-combat tree...

"That's fine. Even if it's automatic, it's not like you're forced to accept it, so I can just not accept it."

"Oh, really?"

Well, that's a relief... Come to think of it, I think there was a note about optional acceptance when I took the quest. In any case, if it was a false alarm, then there's no problem.

We've settled the matter, but we can't start until we've cleaned up the desert. I offered some support to Sora, who let out another wistful sigh as she looked around, and we started gathering up the remains of the morays from all over.