kscans

Chapter 50 - A Look Back Reveals an Anomaly

Since we couldn't exactly dump a pile of materials out in the middle of the restaurant, I figured she leaned forward with the intention of looking into my inventory―――but isn't she a little close?

While I'm developing some resistance to beautiful girls thanks to Sora, I have absolutely zero resistance to beautiful women in kimonos. I don't know what parameters it's referencing, or if there's some kind of perfume item in the game, but the fragrant scent of a woman is having a very unwelcome effect on me.

"...S-Something like this."

Forcing my voice, which was about to crack, back to normal, I barely managed to protect my masculine pride. I feigned nonchalance and opened my inventory's materials tab, and Kagura-san leaned in even closer―――ah, no, no, this is not good, the collar of her kimono is ahhh...!

I may act like a pseudo-gentleman around Sora, but I'm still just a pure-hearted young man (lol). This sudden closeness is throwing me for a loop, could you please stop?!

"Hmm, boars, scorpions, that bird from before... so those are the bosses from Istia, huh?"

Paying no mind to my flustered state, Kagura-san brushed aside the red hair falling over her eyes and adopted a serious expression... She's helping me out, so I should stop thinking about unnecessary things and respond seriously too. Yes.

"Come to think of it, do the beginner areas differ for each faction?"

"They do. Or rather, only the beginner areas are different. The fields after you graduate from being a rookie are common to all factions."

"Oh, seriously?"

As expected, conversations with veteran players bring a torrent of new information. As I showed my surprise yet again, Kagura-san gave me a teasing sideways glance before lifting her finger to point at a particular material―――

"Alright, it's true there's nothing particularly rare here... but, let's see, if we use some of these untouched boss materials, we could make some decent stopgap... equip... ment..."

Her words trailed off unnaturally as she froze.

Wondering what was wrong, I looked over and saw the artisan staring intently at one section of the item list with a puzzled expression.

"Found it."

"Sorry?"

"Something rare."

As she muttered this, Kagura-san extended the hand she had stopped midway. Her index finger tapped on a single item name.

That material was―――ah, how nostalgic. It was a drop from my memorable first boss kill, the `Host of Mush`: [Fungal Bed Ancient Wood].

"Huh, it's rare? But it's from the boss of a tutorial-like forest, not even a proper beginner area."

"What did you say?"

That's scary. Please don't whip your head around like that.

"A... tutorial... forest... what?"

"Ugh...? Um, you know, the ghost-trent-like boss..."

Her unexpectedly serious interest made me shrink back as I answered. Kagura-san looked up at the heavens for some reason and let out a dramatic sigh, "Fuuu..."

"There isn't one."

"What?"

"There is no boss in the Istia-exclusive tutorial map, the `Forest of First Steps`."

?????

"But, there was..."

"And while we're at it, no tree-type enemies have ever been discovered in Arcadia."

Her follow-up words only made me form more question marks in my head.

"But, there was..."

"Listen, okay? I'm from Vestol... the Western Nation of Peace, so I haven't experienced it firsthand, but I know all about Istia's starting area. It's the only one of the four nations where aggressive enemies roam free, so it became a huge topic of discussion."

Ah, so the starting faction choice really does make a difference.

At the time, I remember thinking, "I'd be pissed if I chose the peace faction and got thrown into a map like this." Turns out my assumption back then was correct.

"Normally... I don't see any reason for you to lie, and since I'm looking at an unknown material right in front of me, I'll treat it as fact."

As I was off in my own world, recalling my adventure from a while back, Kagura-san rubbed her temples with a look of utter resignation and said with a sigh.

"Normally, in that forest you're talking about, the only enemies that appear are deformed mushroom monsters that can do nothing but charge at you. They look harmless but persistently pick fights, so new users unfamiliar with avatar controls were apparently beaten to a pulp. The pandemonium on the first day of service is still the stuff of legends."

"Harmless-looking deformed mushroom...?"

My muttered question slipped out, interrupting her. Kagura-san stopped talking.

...Hey, even if you make that exasperated face at me―――Ah, yes, you want me to talk. Please don't glare, it's scary when a beautiful woman scowls.

"Um... the ones that appeared in the forest I wandered into were more like horror-esque monster mushrooms, the kind that would make a girl scream and run for her life on sight..."

At the very least, Sora-san ran away without a moment's hesitation the instant she saw one.

"...Come to think of it, this too. What is this, [Monster Mushroom Cap]?"

"A drop from those monster mushrooms, I think."

The part about them only being able to charge at you matches, but judging by Kagura-san's reaction as she looked up at the heavens again, it seemed that not only was there a non-existent boss, but even the regular mobs were strange.

After some back and forth... or rather, a deliberation based on my testimony, we came to the conclusion that the forest Sora and I had wandered through was "not the `Forest of First Steps`."

"Seriously... No, seriously...?"

"I'm the one who wants to collapse. Why are you the one looking so dejected?"

Well, because that means the materials from the small-fry mushrooms were also unknown rare items―――

"And I sold a ton of them...?"

"...To an NPC shop?"

When I nodded, all I got back was a sigh.

"Well, just think of it as a good thing that you didn't cause a huge uproar by letting them circulate among players while you were still ignorant. It definitely would have caused trouble."

"Haha... nearly a hundred of them, for almost nothing..."

Judging by Kagura-san's reaction, I could confirm that they were undoubtedly rare items. And in online games where players can trade, such items, even if they're the lowest rank materials with no practical use, can fetch a decent price.

In an MMO, rarity is an absolute added value... Ah, damn it. I wonder how much I could have made if I had traded them properly.

"Just think of it as a tuition fee that comes with playing online games and get over it."

"Yeah, well... it's not like I'm hurting for money right now..."

"You might be about to start hurting for it."

"Could you please not say such scary things?"

Prompted by Kagura-san, who was laughing as if it were someone else's problem, I handed over the two types of materials through the trade screen. She said she could get a rough idea of their properties with her artisan skills and offered to appraise them for me.

"Alright... first, the [Monster Mushroom Cap] is no good. It's flexible, so it might be usable for clothing production, but it has no aptitude for weapons or armor."

I had assumed she would objectify it and examine it, but it seems all she needed was to have it in her own inventory. Peeking at the window she had summoned, she began her critique immediately.

"Clothing, you say?"

I pinched the gracious outfit she had bestowed upon me and asked, "Like this?" She nodded as if to say, Exactly.

"It's outside my specialty so I can't work with it, but you might make a fortune if you take it to a designer. For clothing items that don't affect stats, rarity is everything."

"Are you trying to rub salt in the wound?"

"Next up is the [Fungal Bed Ancient Wood]."

My whining was ignored, so I decided to switch gears.

"This one is... ah, well, I had a bad feeling about it."

"Just as I switched gears, can you not say something so ominous?"

As Kagura-san narrowed her eyes, I watched her warily, wondering what was next.

"For now, I should probably say congratulations."

Unexpectedly receiving words of celebration, I could only tilt my head in confusion.

"So it's a good material?"

"It is. To put it in terms of money..."

Seeing her contemplate with a serious expression, it seemed it really was quite valuable. It's true I struggled with it back then, but now that I think about it, it was a relatively easy fight. To think I'd find something so valuable from that gnarled creature―――

"―――Roughly 20M, I'd say."

"Oh, seriously... wait, eh, wh-wh-wh-wh-wha?!"

"You glitched out just like in the textbook examples."

Her lighthearted jab went in one ear and out the other. The amount she stated was not just double or triple what I had vaguely expected, but somewhere far beyond. I unconsciously stood up from my seat and backed away.

"Twe-twenty, 20 mega?! Twenty million Luna?!"

Are you kidding me?! It's not some worthless piece of paper from some random country! The exchange rate for Arcadia's currency (Luna) feels about the same as Japanese Yen!

"That's four thousand times my entire net worth!"

"...Even for a rookie, you should have a bit more saved up if you haven't been spending it like an idiot."

Are you not aware of the maintenance costs for a whole arsenal of main weapons?―――No, more importantly right now...

"C-Come on, you're kidding, right...? How can a material from some gnarled ghost that can only summon minions be worth that much?"

"In Arcadia, crafters have a technique to transfer the properties of one material to another."

Interrupting my frantic words, the exclusive magitech artisan suddenly began her lecture.

"You can't transfer from a high-grade material to a low-grade one, though. But conversely, from low-grade to high-grade, it's possible without any major restrictions."

Because of this, there is always a certain demand for low-rank materials with useful properties in Arcadia. While high-level players have better ways to earn money, these materials are a good source of income for mid- to low-tier players.

"And that's where this comes in."

"Ah... so what you're saying is, it has some kind of crazy special effect?"

"No point in dragging it out. It's not what you'd call high-grade, but this thing has `Self-Repair`."

Huh... huh?

"It's... useful, I guess."

Honestly, it wasn't as impactful as I'd thought. I think it's a staple of convenient enchantments, but in games like this, it's usually the things that contribute to damage output that end up with ridiculously high values.

"Wait, is 20M not actually that much?"

"Don't be ridiculous. It's an amount that even top-tier players can't earn easily."

"Why would something like that drop from a boss in the very first area..."

To my dazed muttering, Kagura-san's response was rather dry: "How should I know?"

"Monster materials generally inherit the properties of the original enemy, so maybe that trent you fought had that kind of ability."

I don't remember the `Host of Mush` using any kind of self-healing―――but then again, I remember ignoring its minions and instantly killing it with the brute force of dual-wielding a greatsword and a great axe, a tactic that was, in hindsight, quite foolish.

"I wonder... Is `Self-Repair` really worth that much?"

"From the way you're talking, I can tell you don't understand the weapon maintenance situation in this game. You've probably asked an NPC blacksmith to restore your equipment's durability, right? Did you ever think it was strangely expensive?"

"Well, yeah."

My wallet, with only 5,000 Luna to its name, has been made to understand the weight of maintenance costs all too well.

"To put it simply, this stuff that's become the currency of this world,"

As she spoke, a 1 Luna coin objectified in her palm―――it was a perfect circle of shining platinum, with a visual that could be described as an unusually thick one-yen coin.

Common to all was the engraved design of what looked like a goddess in the center, with denominations ranging from 1 Luna to 10,000 Luna depending on the size. Aside from the lack of paper bills, the denominations were just like Japanese yen.

"In terms of lore, before it was a currency, this was a universal catalyst."

"A catalyst?"

"It truly has all sorts of uses. It's needed for big spells, it serves as fuel for various power sources. And, it also repairs the wear and tear on weapons and armor."

Ah, so that's how it is...

"So it's not just the labor fee, the currency itself is the maintenance material."

The fee wasn't ridiculously high; it was that the materials were also required.

"That's right. And the amount required becomes astronomical as the rank of the equipment goes up―――make sense now?"

"Completely."

At the same time, I began to feel wonderfully anxious about my own future. If I were to amass a mountain of high-quality equipment and use it as I pleased, would my wallet have a tomorrow?

"That's why the `Self-Repair` hidden in this material is something that players at the top would drool over. As you've probably figured out by now, it's an absurdly rare item with no clear source."

Since they could quickly recoup the cost with the money saved on maintenance, of course they'd pay a fortune for it―――crap, I'm starting to tremble...!

"So... what are you going to do?"

The meaning of her question was, of course, none other than whether I would sell it or not―――

"I'm not selling."

"A quick answer. I'm a little surprised."

I don't know what she found surprising, but I have my principles when it comes to this sort of thing. I won't say I wasn't tempted by the large sum of money, but I had no intention of hesitating.

"In the end, I'll keep things that I'll need myself in the future. I don't want to get rid of it only to regret it later when I can't get it when I need it."

Of course, there's also the possibility that some event could lead to a flood of supply, and I'd think, "I should have sold it back then." However, in the former case, there's a chance of a complete dead-end situation. In the latter, I might lose out, but that's all it is.

"A preference for stability, huh? Not bad."

"That look on your face that says 'that doesn't suit you at all' gives me a pretty good idea of the image you have of me, you know?"

As she tossed the 1 Luna coin she had been fiddling with into her inventory, Kagura-san laughed, evading my pointed stare.

"Well then, I recommend you treasure it. It would be a waste to embed it in the kind of equipment you're using now."

"You're absolutely right... Boss materials are annoyingly bulky, though. It would be a great help if I could use a warehouse."

This is a critical issue for me, so I've already researched the types of storage available to players. As expected for a game like this, Arcadia does have such services―――but the bottleneck is the usage fee.

"It's ridiculously expensive..."

I think it was around twenty thousand Luna a month. That's for the smallest capacity that can barely hold anything, so renting a decent-sized one would cost even more.

"Well, it's not something a rookie should be getting involved with. To begin with, with normal play, it's rare for a combat class like you to even worry about maximum carrying capacity."

"Guh... well, thanks to you, I have some breathing room for now..."

I owe it all to the [Crystal Feather Amulet of Lightness]. As long as I can resist the temptation to get additional weapons now that I have the space, I shouldn't have to worry about running out of room for loot, for now...

"I could hold onto it for you, you know. But it's not like we can meet up every single time for you to pick it up."

"I can't possibly trouble you that much."

This person is truly caring, but at this rate, I feel like I'll end up relying on her endlessly, so I need to exercise some self-restraint.

"But well, I'll hold onto this for you. It's not like you'll have a use for it for a while... ah, of course, that's assuming you trust me to hold it."

After all the trouble you've gone to for me, you're asking me about trust now?

"I've already received so much from you that I couldn't complain even if you ran off with it. In fact, if you said you wanted it, I'd gladly give it to you."

"Just so you know, even if you combine that outfit and the [Crystal Feather Amulet of Lightness], they don't even come close to the value of twenty million."

It's not even in the same ballpark. You're investing way too generously in a rookie who just appeared out of nowhere, sis.

"That just shows how much I trust you. I look forward to working with you."

As I said this and bowed my head dramatically, I stole a glance at Kagura-san, who seemed pleased, her lips curling into a gentle smile.