Chapter 76: Sticks and stones

May 6th, 2023

Beta Reader: My_Own_Worst_NPC

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The adventurers have been exploring the fourth basement floor in the dungeons of Monte Chris Island for some time now. The floor is quite large, with many paths branching out into a maze and very powerful monsters roaming about.

Although good quality magic stones can be obtained here and there, and many treasures are often found, not many adventurers are strong enough to survive on this floor. It has been five months since the floor was accessible to the public, but no route leading further below has been discovered.

Or at least not yet until today, since the six female warriors – who are also regulars at Shirou’s Inn – have found it. They have defeated the monster that was considered the boss of the floor and found a new stairway. The new floor was leading further below, but at a point it goes upward and seem to continue until it supposed to reach surface level elevation. Since the dungeon was located in the center of Monte Chris Island, and the entrance is near the side of the mountain, perhaps the dungeon was actually within the mountain. [1]

“Is everyone’s glass filled with wine already? Alright, Cheers! Well done everyone, here’s to our successful adventure.”

Tonight, I offered them sparkling wine that I had specially prepared for them. I am proud to say that it is as good as a champagne from France.

“This is good!”

“I’ve never had anything like this before!”

“Mister, this wine taste absolutely amazing.”

It seems that even though there are wines in this world that contain bubbles, they have not managed to create such fine bubbles yet.

The female warriors made gulping sounds while they chugged down their victory wine with a gusto.

I made a whole keg of the wine, so I think there’s enough even if they guzzle down that much. However, if we were in any host club right now, I’m sure they would get charged an exorbitant amount of money for it. After all, my ‘Shirou Perignon’ would be expensive, I’m sure of it.

Well, no matter.  I’m sure they would be fine even if they got charged ridiculous amount of money right now; they can afford it because they got their hand on an amazing treasure when they defeated the Floor Boss.

The treasure is called the Staff of La Messeine; a hidden treasure that is said to have belonged to the great Marquis La Messeine II of the Demon Tribe. According to the lore, it is said to be the key to open a grimoire called Eminence Rock.

It is decorated with numerous jewels and gold and is of high value both financially and artistically. It seems that the guild’s purchase price would be no less than 300,000,000 Lehmens. Word has spread that a high-ranking noblewoman will soon be arriving from the main continent to personally escort the treasure back to the mainland.

Meanwhile, in contrast to the excited female warriors, the atmosphere of Cecily’s party was more subdued. Which is understandable, since they were exploring on the same floor at the time, even their positions were fairly close with each other. With just a bit more luck, it would probably have been Cecily’s party who had found the treasure.

 “It must be nice huh, to find such a rare treasure. Compared to that, all we found were this.” Miina mumbles while rolling a stone in her hand.

I’ve appraised the stone, and it was called “Stone of Absolute Hit”.

It’s about the size of a ping-pong ball, and it will always hit whatever you’re aiming at when you throw it.

“I do think it’s quite an amazing item, though.”

I have borrowed it and played around with it, but its hit rate is really 100% success; it has a homing function, so the way it moves around when thrown was interesting. Even if you swing it with reckless abandon and throw it with all your might, it will still hit the target.

You don’t have to worry about control, so even I, who was bad at sports, was able to throw a decent fastball.

“Well it’s certainly convenient, I gotta admit, but if you use it inside the dungeon, you’ll lose it immediately…”

I guess it’d be hard to retrieve because it looks just like a normal stone, huh. But maybe I can make some fluorescent paint that reflects light, that way it would be relatively easy to find it in the dark dungeon.

However, I still need to keep secret that I can use magic, so maybe I’ll just give the paint to them while pretending that it’s something that I’ve been keeping around forever. Cecily’s the only one who knows about the secret right now, and she’s keeping it well enough that not even Rouge or Miina knows about it.

In order not to raise suspicion that the number of golems have somehow increased unnaturally, recently I’ve been producing only the Cima models. They won’t raise any suspicion since they rarely come into contact with the adventurers.

Meanwhile, I’ve moved some of the land golems that I’ve created over to the Western Island. Many Wonders-type golem are now lurking on the mountainside there, like packs of wild dogs. [2]

Well, it might be more difficult to create golems now, but I still persevere and as a result, my level has steadily increased.

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Creation Magic Lv.17 (All category creation time reduced by 21%, Improved quality of finished product)

MP 3994/3994 (MP recovery rate up: 10MP/minute)

Food Production Lv.16 (Creation time decreased by 32%)

Tools Production Lv.15 (Creation time decreased by 30%)

Weapon Production Lv.2 (Creation time decreased by 3%)

Materials Creation Lv.12 (Creation time reduced by 25%

Golem Production Lv.12 (Creation time reduced by 28%)

Medicine Production Lv.10 (Creation time decreased by 18%)

Repair Lv.16 (Repair time reduced by 32%)

Magical Tool Production Lv. 9 (Creation time reduced by 17%)

Others

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And finally, for the first time in a long time, a new golem can be made.

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Item Production：Metal Golem ・ Mole type (Lv 1)

Category：Golem production（Lv.12）

MP Consumption　252

Explanation: A mole-shaped metal golem. It excels at burrowing into the ground and collecting rare metals. It can detect trace amounts of gold, mithril, and orichalcone in the soil and take them into its body.

Production time：61 hours

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In terms of size, it is much larger than an ordinary mole. It’s about the size of a capybara you’d see at a public aquarium.

It seems to accumulate rare metals steadily, so if I let it go by itself to collect minerals for a year or so, I might be able to get quite a large amount. For rare metals like Orichalcum, even 1 g would fetch a fortune. I can make it by using [Material Creation], but it takes 4000 MP of magic power just to make 1 g, so it’s impossible for now. Also, it would take about four weeks, which is too long.

Since it seems useful, I quickly made one of the Mole-type golem and sent it to the mountain. If I’m lucky, it might find a mineral deposit or something.

My everyday routine now is making new golems and developing new drinks; I consider myself as living a fulfilling life.

The variety of crops in the field has also increased, I’ve even grown a watermelon now. The watermelon juice was really popular for summer season so I ended up making a stall in front of the dungeon. I ordered Goku no. 3 to wear a hachimaki [3] and work solely at the stall like a shop-owner uncle, and it was making a lot of sales.

However, that too is about to end. I can feel the change in the air, Summer is definitely coming to an end; it will be autumn soon.

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I was walking through the commercial district when I was approached by a familiar shopkeeper.

“Okami-san, did you hear about the new ship arriving near the cove?”

I wondered if another fleet of boats with new cargo and adventurers had arrived.

“Is that so? I wonder if that means I’ll finally get the book that I’ve ordered soon.”

I’ve paid Madam Damas a hefty sum of money to order several books. In this world, there is no service like online shopping where you can order a book and it will be delivered the next day. It had been five weeks since I’ve placed my order.

“No, no, the ship arriving this time is carrying a person with high position. I heard she’s coming here to personally handle the rare treasure that everyone’s been talking about.”

Ah, I guess it’s about the Staff of La Messeine that was found by the warrior ladies.

The ship that arrived was probably the one that was sent by the empire to receive the treasure because it was so valuable.

“Isn’t it surprising? The person who came here is a noblewoman, Countess Vebbles.”

“To think that such an important person is coming to this island, huh.”

“That’s right. I’ve went there to see it myself, and I saw seven warships were moored further into the ocean.”

With that many escorts, I guess the treasure must be really valuable indeed.

“They were brand new warships, so it was a spectacular sight. Okami-san, don’t you want to see it for yourself?”

“I don’t think I can, since I need to prepare my own shop…”

I decided to stay away from the harbor, since it brings back memories of when I was first sent to this world and was almost raped when the patrolling soldiers found me.

When the survey team came, Commander Lotte Gram kept a tight leash on her soldiers so I didn’t have any problems, but there was no telling if this Countess Vebbles would be a decent person or not.

After all, there’s a saying that, ‘The Wise Man Does Not Court Danger.’ [4] And so I decided to shut myself in my cave, leaving my work to Goku and the others and just indulge in my erotic novel.   

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1 So, suppose that someone dig a tunnel into the mountain, they might end up accidentally opening the 5th level dungeon and let loose a barrage of powerful monster? Brrr… scary.

2 Won’t this create a problem later?

3 A headband like these:

Source: https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/鉢巻/

https://store.ponparemall.com/yarucan/goods/4560320836186/

4 For once, Shirou did something wise and stay out of trouble. Also, the phrase refers to quote by Aristotle: ‘The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life–knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live.’

((MoWNPC: Personally, I think Vebbles is going to come to Shirou’s bar, see him, and decide that she’s taking HIM back with the staff. I sense war coming to the shores of Monte Chris Island…))