kscans

Chapter 172 - Raising the Treasure

After defeating Poseidon, the superior species of the Kraken, Hayato and the others healed their HP and once again began the Salvage. The drop items they got from defeating Poseidon would be distributed separately, so for now, they remained in everyone's item bags.

It would be a disaster if they fished up another Poseidon, but they decided their luck couldn't be that bad and resumed the Salvage.

(Still, everyone is so strong. I gathered as much fighting power as I could because I didn't know what might happen, but they took down a superior species of a rare monster in no time. If Lunaria-san or Ivan had been here, it might have been an instant kill.)

Hayato thought this as he watched the women, who were happily eating sweets.

Lunaria was under house arrest, and Ivan's schedule hadn't matched up. The prima donna, Noat, also hadn't come, saying she was "too lazy," but if they had participated, he felt they could have hunted any number of Poseidons.

(The NPCs I know are a little too strong. The Bandit clan and the Demon Summoning Research Association already know about them, so it's probably fine, but if other players found out, they'd probably complain a lot.)

Hayato's way of playing online games was unusual.

If the normal way was to form parties with other players and go on adventures, then Hayato was using a kind of cheat, borrowing the power of NPCs. And not just any NPCs, but ones far stronger than players. It wasn't true at all, but it wouldn't be surprising if someone accused him of cheating.

According to what Diite had told him before, other players could also borrow the power of NPCs as much as they wanted if they became friends with them, but he didn't know how many players were actually doing that.

Besides, not all NPCs were strong. It was just that there were many ridiculously strong members around Hayato. That could also be seen as unfair.

As he was thinking about this, he was brought back to his senses by Sonia's voice saying, "Alright, let's get started!"

(Well, there's no use thinking about it. I'll focus on the Salvage.)

When Sonia threw the Winch's hook into the sea again, it was swallowed by the depths.

When it stopped, the Winch's rope began to be reeled in. It had found something on the seabed.

(Surely there won't be another monster... right?)

Hayato watched the situation, almost in prayer.

He was near the center of the deck because it would be a problem if they were attacked when they fished up a monster. The other members stared at the sea surface with a mixture of anticipation and anxiety.

Then, a cheer went up. He couldn't see from his position, but they had fished up a treasure chest.

Sonia admonished the members of the Treasure Hunter Guild who were eager to open it.

"Settle down. You don't think this is the only treasure chest, do you? I'm going to drop the hook again, so wait a little longer."

Sonia said this and threw the hook into the sea again.

In the end, they managed to recover a total of five treasure chests. After the last one, they threw the hook in about ten more times but didn't catch anything, so they decided that was it.

"Alright, should we open the chests here? We can wait until we get back to land, too."

Sonia asked Hayato.

To begin with, they were surrounded by fog here, and they didn't know what might happen. But it was a decent distance to land. And there was no place that could accommodate this many people. Besides, they wanted to see what was inside quickly.

"Let's open them. We need to check the treasure on the spot."

"Aye. Then I'll open them. The one most likely to have what we're looking for is the Adamantite treasure chest. Let's start with that."

Sonia said this and approached the Adamantite chest. She took out an item called a thief's tool and inserted a wire into the keyhole.

Opening treasure chests and disarming traps had a puzzle element. You had to solve the puzzle within a time limit. The higher your skill level, the longer the time limit.

For low-difficulty treasure chests, depending on your skill level, you could open the lock or disarm the trap without doing the puzzle at all, but for an Adamantite chest, even with a skill of 100, the puzzle was unavoidable.

As for lockpicking, even if the time limit ran out, the lock just wouldn't open, and you could try as many times as you wanted. In the case of disarming traps, you could also try multiple times, but if you couldn't disarm it within the time limit, the trap would be triggered.

There were several types of puzzles, but Sonia, who had picked locks and disarmed traps many times, could be said to have memorized all of them.

She picked the lock and disarmed the trap easily, without much of a struggle.

"Alright, let's see what we've got."

Sonia said this happily and opened the treasure chest.

Inside were mainly coins, but there were other things as well. There were jewels, magic items, and valuable medicines and materials. In total, it would probably be worth about 10 million G.

But there was nothing that looked like a design document.

"What, an Adamantite chest and it's a dud?"

As Sonia said this with a bored expression, Relic approached the chest. He peeked inside and checked it from the side.

"Um, Relic-san, what's wrong?"

When Hayato called out to him, Relic was staring at the chest with his left hand on his chin. His right hand was holding his left elbow, so it was a posture of contemplation.

"This is just by eye, but the bottom of the chest is high. Perhaps... Sonia, lend me a knife."

Sonia looked puzzled for a moment before handing Relic a knife. Relic took it and poked the corner of the chest's bottom several times with it.

The bottom of the chest broke a little, revealing a space underneath.

"It seems it has a false bottom."

The surrounding members, including Sonia, let out cries of admiration.

When the bottom of the chest was removed, the design document they were looking for was inside. Then, even more surprised voices echoed around them.

Of course, Hayato was surprised too.

Relic took out the design document and handed it to Sonia along with the knife. His face, as if to say this was common knowledge, was quite irritating. But Sonia, perhaps used to it, just grinned back.

"Well, well, looks like Relic is still one step ahead of me."

"You were too focused on the treasure in front of you. That was just camouflage. Well, putting it in an Adamantite chest was like saying there was something more to it."

Hayato, while thinking, "I see," was also thinking about something else.

(I wonder if anyone else would have figured this out? I don't think there are any players who know that treasure chests can have false bottoms.)

Hayato was a player, but he was also acquainted with Diite, who managed the world, so he had a bit of an administrative mindset. Honestly, he doubted anyone would have noticed this.

Hayato looked at Diite and saw she had a slightly complicated expression. Hayato approached her and spoke.

"Diite-chan, what's with that face? What's wrong?"

"No, it's just that I'm frustrated that Relic-kun saw through the false bottom. And he even said it was meaningless in an Adamantite chest, so I'm a little down."

Basically, Diite thought up the events. The same went for the various gimmicks and puzzles. Hayato guessed that the false bottom was one of Diite's masterpieces, and she was frustrated that it was seen through so easily.

The question of what she would have done if no one had noticed it also came to mind, but he decided to put that aside for now.

"Ah, I see. But are there any players who know about this false bottom?"

"No. Relic-kun is the first to see through it. Actually, the false bottom was a new feature introduced in this event. I'm troubled that it was seen through so quickly."

"But if you don't see through it, you can't get the design document, right?"

"...Are you saying the difficulty is too high? Before the event started, the design document was just in the treasure chest normally, but since the Treasure Hunting event started, I made it like this."

"Is that so? But I don't think any player would figure out a false bottom without any hints. I don't know how well-known the Airship design document itself is, though."

"There are a fair number of players who have the design document. They found it by chance in treasure chests in ruins. Unfortunately, there are no players who found the manuscript in the Grand Prison like Sonia-kun did."

"Well, that's because there are no players who try to enter restricted areas."

Hayato had never been there, but if it was a place managed by the Empire and entry was forbidden, there was a chance of being caught. If there was a possibility of being thrown in jail, normal players wouldn't go to such a place.

"That may be true. Then maybe I should give a few more hints. And it might be better to loosen some of the restrictions on the Grand Prison. The Airship itself has been around since the beginning, but no one has tried to collect the design documents, so I was a little frustrated."

"It's sad when you make something and nobody knows about it... Well, I only learned about the Airship from Sonia-san, so I kind of feel like I'm cheating."

Hayato was doing various things at the request of NPCs. That could be called a quest, but he wouldn't have known about the Airship if Sonia hadn't come.

Normally, you would go to an NPC yourself and receive a quest. Or you would discover something during an adventure and investigate it.

Considering that, he had learned this information through completely different means than a normal player. You could even say the quest had come to him. It probably wasn't cheating, but if an important quest started without him doing anything, it felt like he was cheating.

"You think of interesting things, Hayato-kun."

"You think so?"

"As you know, the NPCs are living in this world. They're not like the NPCs in other games. It's normal for them to bring you quests after you become friends with them."

"Now that you say that, I guess so. But it's hard to argue against it being cheating when I'm brought quests without actually doing anything."

"The reason everyone asks you for help is not just because of your skills, Hayato-kun, but more because of your personality and atmosphere. It's not like you're not doing anything, and there's no cheating involved."

"Huh?"

"Sonia-kun came to you with a request because Relic-kun had been talking about you, right? If you were an insignificant person to Relic-kun, he wouldn't even bring you up in conversation, and he wouldn't ask you to hire him as a butler again. If you were really doing nothing, that would never happen. Or do you have some kind of charisma that allows you to gain Relic-kun's trust without doing anything?"

"I certainly don't have that kind of charisma. But I'm a little surprised to hear I'm trusted that much. I don't remember doing anything in particular... Um, this might be embarrassing if I'm wrong, but are you by any chance praising me?"

"Would you have preferred if I praised you more directly? I can say as much as you like."

"Any more would be a lethal dose, so please stop."

Being told that everyone asks him for help because he has a good personality, even if it's just flattery, is bound to make him blush. He didn't have a particularly great personality, and in fact, he was more often called a wimp. Mainly by Esha.

Feeling a little embarrassed, Hayato cleared his throat. He looked away from Diite, who was grinning slightly, and looked around. He could only see fog, but it was important for calming his heart.

Just then, Relic came over.

"Hayato-sama, we have managed to open all the treasure chests. We will distribute the contents after returning to land, so I think we should head back to port. Is that all right with you?"

"Um, yes. Let's head back then. Let's be careful on the way back, too. We might be attacked by monsters."

"Understood."

Relic bowed his head and gave various instructions to the members. The ship began to move slowly.

For the time being, Hayato put aside his conversation with Diite and decided to think about the distribution of the design document and the other treasures.