CH 137

“I only thought about it, alright?” I immediately grumbled an excuse.

A habit from my gamer days had lingered. Sometimes, I viewed raid-related items as belonging to the group, not to an individual. You had to think about efficiency to clear dungeons! But obviously, Mayer would hear none of this. The captain grinned as he took my hand and put on the artifact rings for me, one by one. I wanted to tell him that this was unnecessary and stop him, but my hand couldn’t budge in his big and strong grip. If there was anything to be relieved about, it was that he didn’t insist on going so far as putting on my boots.

Buff magic increased stats by a percentage, but artifacts gave fixed value increases. It could be why I felt nauseous at the feeling of my low stats jumping up each time an artifact was put on me.

Mayer held my hand and looked it over as he asked, “Are you fine with the designs? They can only be conservative, being old relics.”

“These are enough to be called classics. And I’m more about performance than looks.”

They all looked like fantasy outfits to me anyway. If I was to be honest, even the Dark Knights uniform I currently wore made me feel a little like I was cosplaying. But when it came to items with this level of stats, I was willing to bear with however they looked. I’d wear them even if they had eye-snatching fluorescent pink hearts for patterns.

For the finishing touch, Mayer draped Lena’s Cloak over my shoulders and nodded at me. “I am still dissatisfied about Tragula joining the special unit. I think I can only have peace of mind with you wearing these.”

He sounded as if he was warier of Tragula than the dragon we were going to face. From the moment I told him I would assign Tragula to the special unit, he had expressed his disapproval. Since then, he often tried to dissuade me. Who knew the result of that would be him dropping all these artifacts on me? The cloak on my shoulders was physically light, but they were an extreme burden mentally. Feeling a phantom weight press at my shoulders, I sighed. “…I have Robur and August in the party, so how could Tragula get up to no good?”

“You never know. There is no harm in being prepared.”

It was a cause for concern if that preparation was limited to my safety. Then again, pointing that out would only ensue in meaningless arguing. Mayer wasn’t one to give way easily, after all.

“I understand. If this will put your mind at ease, Captain… Since this will be the first time you’ll be using mana, I’ll do my best to do things your way.”

“Then exclude Tragula.”

“Aside from that,” I added.

Look at him and his iron stubbornness acting up as soon as I speak! After rejecting his request, I shook my head. I had a plan behind putting Tragula in the special unit despite knowing Mayer would hate it. Tragula’s level was 60. As he didn’t lack experience in dungeons, the man would feel the efficacy of my support magic in no time. At that point, he’d be even more eager to enter my good graces. That would make it a little easier for me to take over the Dark Knights.

Naturally, I wasn’t planning without any certainty. There was just one time in the first playthrough that I had raided a dungeon together with Tragula.