kscans

Chapter 94 - The Deal

Hayato opened the dining hall door and moved to the shop side.

Standing there was Cecil, looking exactly as she had at the Stampede yesterday. Two greatswords on her back, a one-handed sword on each side of her waist, and a single katana on the back of her waist. Since this was virtual reality, they wouldn’t bump into anything and hinder her movement, but Hayato’s impression was that it looked difficult to move in.

Cecil smiled upon seeing Hayato, who was having such thoughts.

"Oh! You must be the owner, Hayato!"

"Yes, I’m Hayato. And you must be Cecil-san, correct?"

"What, you know who I am? Then this’ll be quick. Make me an Excalibur Replica. Five stars!"

"I’ll make it for one billion G."

"I’ll pay in monthly installments of 10,000 G."

"Get out."

Hayato couldn’t calculate it instantly, but there was no way the payment would be finished in a few years. In other words, she was planning to skip out on it. If she brought the materials, it would be understandable, but since she didn’t even have those, he couldn’t go easy on her.

However, seeing how Cecil fought yesterday, he did think that if he supported her, they would have a considerable advantage in the battle against the Fire Dragon Eddy Owl.

He had also been asked by Diite to help prevent the Dragon Soul artifact from being stolen, and he wasn’t against supporting Cecil.

As he was wondering what to do, Ash and the others came over to the shop.

"Oh, Ash. Give me the Dragon Eater. I’ll pay you. In installments."

"I told you no. And stop bothering Hayato. If you don’t have money, at least bring the materials."

"That thing is a replica, but it’s made of Adamantite, right? There’s no way I can mine that."

Hayato could mine Adamantite. And if he wore equipment that improved his Ore Knowledge skill, he could mine it at a low probability even if his skill was at 0. It would take a lot of effort to get to that point, but it wasn’t impossible.

But Hayato was busy right now. The Royal Capital was one thing, but the Imperial Capital also needed to be restored after yesterday’s Stampede. Considering that, it was difficult time-wise for Hayato himself to go mining.

However, he also had the desire to put Cecil in his debt and have her play an active role in the Stampede.

At the current moment, as long as it was only one Hardline Dragon, the artifact fragment wouldn’t be stolen. But if all five came together, they would almost certainly lose and the fragment would be stolen. Since he didn’t know what conditions would cause all five to attack, he wanted to defeat them one by one as quickly as possible.

Thinking this, Hayato said,

"Um, Cecil-san."

"Just Cecil is fine. You don’t need the ‘san’."

"Alright, Cecil. I can make you an Excalibur Replica. But there’s a condition."

"A condition?"

"Yes. If you defeat the Fire Dragon Eddy Owl, I’ll prepare it for you for free. That said, it’ll be much later. Like, six months from now, or a year from now."

Hayato hadn’t heard from Diite when the Stampede event would end. But he thought it wouldn’t be an event that would continue forever, and he figured things would have settled down by then.

Hearing that condition, Cecil clenched her fists and shouted, "Alright!"

"You said it, you know? You said it! You can’t take it back!"

"I won’t."

Next to the joyous Cecil, Ash had a slightly grim look on his face.

"Are you sure, making a promise like that?"

"It doesn’t matter. In the first place, I can’t fight in the Stampede. If my skills can motivate a strong person, I don’t see a problem. It’ll make the fight easier for you guys too, Ash."

"…I see. Thanks."

Ash said this with an embarrassed look before turning to Cecil.

"Cecil, the next time the Fire Dragon appears in the Imperial Capital, fight with us. We can’t win against that thing if we’re all split up. Let’s at least have our groups cooperate."

"Sure. In that case, give me the Dragon Eater when we beat the Fire Dragon."

"Why does it always come to that? Besides, this is my exclusive weapon, so you can’t equip it. Not that I have any intention of giving it to you, though."

As Ash said that, Cecil started to laugh.

No one except Cecil knew why she laughed. Hayato, Ash, and Ren all tilted their heads.

"I don’t have those kinds of equipment restrictions. Being able to equip anyone’s exclusive gear is the reward I got from God. That said, I can’t draw out the full performance of that kind of equipment, so it’s more of a collection piece. But don’t you think it would look cool if I equipped it? My current equipment looks good, but I think there’s a better combination out there."

(That’s amazing. No equipment restrictions. ‘Can’t draw out the full performance’ means in the case of the Dragon Eater, the five times damage against dragons and the Blood Weapon can’t be used… Come to think of it, that seems kind of meaningless.)

The skills of the Dragon Eater couldn’t be used, which meant it wasn’t much different from an Adamantite greatsword. It probably wasn’t very meaningful to anyone other than Cecil, who wasn’t seeking strength in her equipment but simply thinking of it as a fashion coordination.

"So, if anything, I want a replica that anyone can equip. Hayato, can’t you make a Dragon Eater Replica or something?"

"No, I can’t. I mean, I don’t even know if such a weapon exists."

He said that, but recalling what Esha had said yesterday, it meant that Ash knew such a manufacturing method, that is, he could write a piece of paper with the manufacturing method written on it.

Hayato looked at Ash.

Ash thought for a moment, then nodded.

"I was planning to give you the manufacturing method for a Dragon Eater Replica for the members of my group anyway. Cecil, I’ll have Hayato give you one that he makes, so make sure you do your part in the next Fire Dragon battle."

"Whoa, seriously? You’re giving it to me for free? Man, it pays to ask! Leave it to me, I’ll beat that Fire Dragon to a pulp in the next battle!"

Ash ignored the joyous Cecil and returned his gaze to Hayato.

"Hayato, that’s the deal, so please accept it. And if possible, I’d like you to release the replicas on the market so that people other than our mercenary group can use them. Don’t worry about the materials. We’ll gather them."

"I think it would improve the overall strength of everyone if you released the paper with the manufacturing method on the market."

There were many players with the Blacksmithing Skill. Giving them the manufacturing method would be more effective than having Hayato release what he made on the market.

At Hayato’s words, the corners of Ash’s mouth turned up. It was a villainous smile by all accounts.

"We can do that eventually, but for now, let’s monopolize it. We should be the ones to profit first, right?"

"Ah, I see. You’ve become quite the villain in the past six months, Ash."

"I’ve always been like this. Right, Ren? …I thought you were being quiet for a while now. What are you doing with those Five-sun Nails and Straw Dolls?"

"I thought Cecil-san would want them, but she doesn’t seem interested at all. Is it because they’re not swords? Hayato-san would make as many Five-sun Nails and Straw Dolls as I want."

"Ren-chan, I might be saying something shocking, but I don’t really want to make either of those. I tried my best to get them to five stars at first, though… It feels like I’ll get cursed."

He wasn’t cursed, but both were equipment related to curses. Honestly, he didn’t want to make them about as much as he didn’t want to make coffins.

"Isn’t being cursed wonderful!"

"That’s just you, Ren-chan."

"Oh, are we talking about curse equipment? I was just thinking of getting into curse-type swords. They look cool, regardless of their performance."

"From the moment I first saw you, Cecil-san, I felt a collector’s sympathy…! They’re cute, aren’t they!"

As Ren and Cecil began a collector’s discussion with their slightly different values, Hayato and Ash quietly moved away from the shop.