CH 86

The customization of weapons and armors is one of the hallmarks of Nekomimi Neko, and it was advertised quite a lot before it was released. 

There were big letters saying ‘An infinite number of possibilities with the custom weapon creation system! Let’s make a one-and-only original weapon with your own hands!’ with a background of a blacksmith holding a hammer. But one day, the advertisements for the weapon customization suddenly disappeared, and in the articles of the game, the weapon customization was not touched on anymore. 

And then, the weapon customization system that was implemented in the game was just as people expected. Not a system where they can modify or create weapons of their own liking, but a synthesizing system where you fuse existing weapons. There wasn’t a single instance of using a hammer. 

‘Eh? Could it be that the advertised system couldn’t be implemented?’, is what people suspected, but this weapon customization system was unexpectedly well liked. 

This custom weapon creation…no, let’s call it as it is, the weapon synthesizing system is a simple one where you gather the good parts of 3 weapons and make it into one. 

But it is exactly because of that simplicity that there’s no maliciousness of the developers mixed in it and it became a pure important feature for the players. 

Just as I explained before, the outward appearance of this device is that of a big furnace with 3 holes that have written on top of each respectively: Shape, Performance, and Special. 

The way of using it is simple. 

For example; A has a cool appearance, but its performance is sad; B has good performance, but its appearance is too lame.

In this case, you put the A into the Shape hole and put the B in the Performance hole, and then activate the device. That way you can obtain a weapon with the appearance of A and the performance of B. 

Of course, if you mistake the places you put it in, you will make the worst weapon that has the appearance of B and the performance of A though. 

You would think there’s no way there would be people who would do something like that, but there are actually uses for such detrimental synthesis. 

Actually, at my last stages of playing Nekomimi Neko, my character had become too strong, so I have used the synthesis to detune the weapon I liked. 

Now that I think back on it, just how much of a cripple was I? 

It would probably be easier to understand that it is a system where you put together the 3 factors that are Shape, Performance, and Special. 

The factors pertaining Shape are: Appearance, Weapon Type, and Weight; the factors pertaining Performance are: Attack, Level, and HP; and the factors pertaining Special are: Added Element, Special Ability, and Unique Skill.

There’s often weapons that are excellent in one of those 3 points, and there’s also those with one factor they are lacking a lot in. 

Gathering all the good traits of those weapons and creating the ideal weapon is an obvious advantage. 

I touched on this when I explained about Shiranui, but if it is a weapon of the same level, their attack power is around the same no matter the category. 

The difference in the attack power is shown in the modifier of the weapon category, so even a big axe that looks like it has a lot of damage or a feeble-looking dagger won’t have much difference in their attack number. 

That’s why, even if you synthesize a big giant axe and cheap dagger, you normally won’t be getting a cheap dagger with the power of a giant axe. 

But there’s one weapon in Nekomimi Neko where you can get a similar thing to that.

Meat Cleaver.

This weapon that has outstanding Attack Power but has a Weight of 66 in exchange which you could only call as a joke. If you use it just as it is, it is not practical at all. 

However, the plus of this weapon is that the Attack Power is connected to Performance and the con is connected to Appearance. 

If you can just yank out the Performance of it, then this is an extremely good synthesizing material.

On the other hand, I have one other peculiar weapon. 

Shiranui.

It looks like a normal katana, but because of a mistake from the developers, the Otachi weapon category was set to it. 

Because of its weapon category modifier, it is a weapon that prides on outstanding attack power compared to its peers, but it is in the end a midgame weapon. 

In the midgame where the attack power of weapons inflates, it unfortunately can’t be called a strong weapon.

But because the weapon category and weight can be synthesized, this weapon can become the best synthesis material. 

If we combine these two weapons that have strong traits, what kind of weapon would you get? 

I have experienced that in the game already. 

“Then, I will be using it.” (Souma)

Saying this, I approached the weapon synthesizer. 

I actually came here to recover the durability of my weapons, but once you synthesize something, they come out with full HP, so it doesn’t matter. 

I bring out the weapons in front of the big furnace.

In the game, this is done through opening a window, the same as when you equip something, but this world doesn’t have that. 

I already imagined this was the case, but here you have to put the weapons in yourself. 

But this does feel more appropriate than having a screen, choosing 3 weapons, and pressing the yes button.

I begin working while feeling that excitement I haven’t felt in a while from doing this. 

I put Shiranui in the hole that says Shape and close the lid. 

Next, I place the Meat Cleaver in the hole that’s written Performance and close the lid. 

I don’t place anything in the Special hole and simply close the lid. 

For some reason, this synthesizer can activate as long as there’s 1 weapon in it. The blank entries will have the attribute of the weapon that was placed in the other hole (the weapon that was placed afterwards).

That’s why, in this case, the Appearance will be that of Shiranui, and the Performance and Special will be of the Meat Cleaver. 

Well, Shiranui and the Meat Cleaver shouldn’t have Special Abilities, so it doesn’t really matter which one gets the Special though. 

By the way, there was a bug you could exploit here…

-Place weapon A into the Appearance entry and push the Yes button. 

-The Performance and Special will be copied from A. 

-Cancel it, take out weapon A from the Appearance entry, and put in a weapon B that you don’t care.

-For some reason, the data for the Performance and Special of the weapon A will remain there and you can synthesize it just like that. 

-You will get a weapon with the Shape of weapon B and the Performance and Special of weapon A. 

-Weapon A doesn’t disappear, so you can make as many weapons with the same abilities of weapon A! 

That’s the dirty weapon synthesization technique there was, but that was actually fixed.

That’s a bit of a shame. 

Anyways, with this, preparations are done.

What’s left is to add the necessary Element to the crystal that’s at the front of the device and it will activate. 

‘It should be fine like this, right?’, is the kind of gaze I directed to Mitsuki at my back, and she nodded. 

I resolve myself and push my own crystal at the crystal that’s at the center of the furnace, and activate it. 

One of the downsides of synthesizing is that the Element you use -in other words, money- will increase at accelerated rates proportional to the quality of the finished product, but that isn’t that big of a deal for me as a millionaire. 

Element was poured from my crystal and the device began moving. 

The furnace began shaking comically all of a sudden, and then…

*Gashakon Gashakon Gashakon… Bang!!*

It is like those olden washing machines I have heard stories of, making a sound like that of manga onomatopoeia as the synthesis begins…and ends as quickly as that. 

Around 3 minutes…

It is an unbelievably high performance machine. 

The 3 lids of Shape, Performance, and Special all open up at the same time, and a single katana shows up from inside. 

I picked that up without hesitation. 

It looks completely the same as Shiranui.

But even I somewhat feel that the power within it has increased to incomparable levels. 

“That sword is outstanding. It has strength that makes my body tremble just from looking at it.” (Mitsuki)

Even I felt that way, so the sword master Mitsuki must have been able to clearly tell. 

Her cat ears trembled as if saying ‘it tingles!’.

(Speaking of which, what should I call this weapon?) (Souma)

In the game, when you use the synthesizer to synthesize a weapon, the completed weapon will even have the name synthesized randomly. 

In the past, when I synthesized the Shining Greatsword of Glory, the Knife of the Bandit Head, and the Sparkling Longsword, a weapon with the name Shining Sparkling Head Longsword showed up, and I ended up pushing the reset button. 

Now that I think back on it, that was some tasty meme material. That was such a waste.

(Well, anything’s fine.) (Souma)

The name of the weapon doesn’t show up in this world anyways. 

I should just follow the appearance and call it Shiranui. 

(Now then, it begins from here.) (Souma)

I bring out a weapon I don’t need anymore which I bought from Lamurick, and put it inside the Performance hole. 

And then, I bring out one other item from the bag.

“That’s…” 

The cat ears of Mitsuki spread to the sides in surprise.

What I brought out was a chisel. 

It is classified as a weapon, but it isn’t an item that was set to be eligible for synthesizing, and it didn’t show up in the synthesization menu, so it wasn’t possible to synthesize it. 

“Is it weird to synthesize this?” (Souma)

“Of course it is. Synthesizing that is…is strange, isn’t it?” (Mitsuki)

Her tone was clear, but she stated it firmly. 

The people in this world really do feel apprehensive about synthesizing chisels in a psychological level. 

It is most likely the same as the people of this world ‘not being able to equip more than 2 rings’. Aversion that overcomes reasoning. 

Probably a limitation from the game system. 

But I already know that those mental restrictions don’t work on me. 

I placed the chisel into the Appearance hole without hesitation.

“Ah…!” (Mitsuki)

Mitsuki raised her voice, but I activated the device without minding it. 

And then…

*Gashakon Gashakon Gashakon… Bang!!*

It made noise, the synthesis finished, and the chisel once again showed in front of me. 

I can’t tell a change at all from the appearance, but…

“U-Uhm…hah!” (Souma)

I tried stabbing the wooden dummy used for slashing tests by the side. 

It stabbed easily without much resistance. 

Power that would be unthinkable for a normal chisel. 

The effect of the synthesis is properly showing. 

I tried testing it out with an unsynthesized chisel, and it really didn’t show that much power as the other one. 

As I thought. It should be safe to assume that even the weapons that couldn’t be synthesized in the game before should be possible to synthesize here as long as you can put them in the synthesizer. 

…Then, here’s where the real deal comes. 

What I really want to synthesize. 

I will challenge the synthesis of the Gouging Vajra that couldn’t be synthesized in the game. 

There’s 3 problems with the Gouging Vajra. 

Because of the throwing skill, it will attack me when I bring it out from the Cooler Box. 

Because it was placed in the box by rudimentary means, there’s the chance it is being treated as a stolen item. 

It is an exclusive weapon, so only Asahi can use it. 

For the first 2, it will probably be easily resolved by simply placing it in the synthesizer. 

The weapon born from the synthesizer won’t have a loss in HP, and won’t be in any special states from skills; a complete white slate. 

The plus effects of enchantments will all be erased too, but the cursed and stolen states will also be undone, so there were many players who would do synthesization with only one weapon. 

This is a small popular technique within Nekomimi Neko players called Weapon Laundering. It probably will work well in this case too. 

The biggest hurdle will be the last one. The Gouging Vajra is an exclusive weapon. The weapon synthesis should undo this one as well in theory. 

Many Nekomimi Neko players have already verified that the exclusive weapon restriction is tied to Shape.

And there have actually been exclusive weapons that could be used after making the Shape item a different one. 

However, powerful exclusive weapons like the Gouging Vajra were almost all impossible to synthesize, so there wasn’t much of a chance to use this technique. 

But in this world where there’s no restrictions on what weapon you can put in, it should be possible to synthesize the Gouging Vajra and make it into an item that anyone can use. 

Just that, there’s a bit of an issue here. A bit of an obstacle in practice. 

The fact that it would be impossible for me to put the Gouging Vajra in. 

In order to do this plan of mine, I would definitely need someone to help me out. 

That’s why I turned back and lowered my head. 

“Mitsuki, I have a request.” (Souma)

Her ears jumped up. 

5 minutes later. 

“Ready?” (Souma)

Mitsuki was at the opposite side of me with the furnace in between, standing in front of the Performance hole, in standby with the Cooler Box facing the hole. 

At first, Mitsuki was hesitating to cooperate here, saying ‘being a partner in destroying my family’s heirloom is a bit…’, but when I said ‘you are the only one I can rely on, Mitsuki!’, she slowly softened her attitude, and accepted to cooperate more easily than I expected. 

I told her that I wasn’t doing this for personal profit. It is a weapon that we will need in the future. This sincere plea of mine must have reached the heart of Mitsuki.

Anyways, having obtained Mitsuki as a helper, it is now possible to carry out my plan. 

Well, it is not anything big like a plan. The details are truly simple. 

The spear should be flying my way, so I will stand at the opposite side of the synthesizer when Mitsuki opens the Cooler Box, and the spear will naturally jump into the device. 

I have already placed the Wakizashi in the Shape hole. 

If we place the Gouging Vajra in whichever hole and activate it, a weapon with the appearance of the Wakizashi and the abilities of the Gouging Vajra should be created -which would be impossible to obtain in the game. 

I have confirmed the position of my face and the position of the hole countless times. 

There should be no mistakes here. 

“Yeah, do it!” (Souma)

When I said this, Mitsuki opened the Cooler Box and…

—PANG! 

The violent sound of something crashing into the synthesizer rang. 

It seems like the spear properly got inside.

Without delay…

“I have closed the lid.” (Mitsuki)

I heard Mitsuki reporting this on the other side. 

(It went well!) (Souma)

The moment I pumped my fist…

*ClankClankClankClankClankClank!!*

A sound like that of a drill in a construction site reached my eardrums. 

No need to even think about where that sound is coming from. 

(Is it scratching the walls from the inside?!) (Souma)

It is not like I didn’t expect the worst to happen here. 

The skill’s effect disappearing happens after the synthesis. 

In the middle of the synthesis, the skill effect is still active, so the Gouging Vajra will aim for me inside the device! 

“Mitsuki!” (Souma)

“I’m on it!” (Mitsuki)

The furnace was rumbling with a thunderous roar as if answering to my scream-like words. 

Mitsuki sent Element to the crystal. 

But…

*ClankClankClankClankClankClank!!*

A thunderous sound that overwhelmed this reached my eardrums. 

Moreover, the sound is getting louder. 

It might be close to taking effect. 

(If it doesn’t make it in time…what do I do?) (Souma)

The Cooler Box is on the opposite side. I won’t be able to make it in time if I go right now. 

Anything other that I could block it with would be…the Setsuna Samidare Giri, but I don’t think I can match the timing against the flying spear. 

(Could it be that this will be the moment when I will…) (Souma)

A choking 3 long minutes. 

*BANG!!*

A sound different from that of a spear scraping against the walls. A powerful but comical sound rang. 

“…Is it…over?” (Souma)

That thunderous sound wasn’t resonating no matter how long I waited. 

The device was completely silent. 

“Looks like it went well.” (Mitsuki)

Mitsuki went around and said that. 

“…I see…” (Souma)

I finally remembered how to breathe. 

And so, Gouging Vajra has made me break into a cold sweat not once but twice now, but I am looking forward to what comes next.

I bring out the finished weapon from the synthesizer. 

“Hmm.” (Souma)

This is obvious, but it looks like a normal Wakizashi. 

But when I tried cutting the wooden dummy from before…

“Uwaah!” 

It was like butter…no, it was on the level that felt as if I was cutting water -that’s how easy it was to cut the wooden dummy. 

That was surprising. 

It cuts so well that it is scary. 

Scary, but it is a success! 

I looked at Mitsuki’s face, Mitsuki also looked at me, and we smiled like partners in crime…

But I was too naive. 

When there’s twice, there’s thrice. 

The counterattack of the Gouging Vajra isn’t over yet. 

“What was the sound before?!” 

The one who jumped into the room with a shout was the master of the dojo, Asahi. 

Looks like he heard the noise before and ran all the way here. 

His ears are mighty good despite not having cat ears. 

“Aah, that from before was nothing. We just got a bit too into using our weapons and…” (Souma)

I can’t tell him that was the last struggle of the Gouging Vajra. 

I waved my hand and the eyes of Asahi were directed at my hands. 

“Souma-kun! That…that weapon…” (Asahi)

“Ah…!” (Souma)

He is already ignoring the reason why he came here. 

His eyes were nailed at the Wakizashi that I am holding. 

“Hmm, I knew it. That weapon doesn’t look that different from others at a glance, but it holds incredible power, right? That power might not lose to the Gouging Vajra.” (Asahi)

“Ah, this is…uhm…” (Souma)

Well, the Performance is the same, so it is natural for it to not lose. 

“Good grief. You really like to hide your cards. If you had a weapon like that, you could have shown it at the trial. Just where did you get that dagger?” (Asahi)

There’s no malice in Asahi’s words. 

He is simply asking its history purely as a warrior or as a weapon user.

But that makes it hurt even more as a guilty party. 

“Aah, this…this weapon, you see…” (Souma)

Cold sweat flowed down from my forehead as I desperately searched for a way to get out of this. 

Gouging Vajra…

To think that it would pierce its enemy even when losing its shape…what a sniper.