Vol. 8 - Ch. 401 - A comrade from ‹Support Department› and Yokai destroyer!

"It's my turn, alright."Saying that, a slightly pale orange haired girl stood up from her chair with drowsy eyes. Her hair, done in a single braid, dribbled behind her back.

If only one looked at her hair style and her way of speaking, they would think they were talking to a mature beauty. But behind that impression lies a curveless body, half-opened eye, baby face and intonation-less voice—Yes, she was a through and through loli. And not to forget—which is the important point here—her quirky manish tone.

"Hello there. I am Nico, a student of ‹Support Department Class 2-1› of this ‹Labyrinth Academy - Main Branch›. I have joined ‹Eden› to study the item from dungeons. I will be relying on other member so my regards for that in advance. And my job is ‹Collector LV11›."

In her peculiar and illustrative way of speaking, she introduced herself. ‹Eden› reach has finally pulled in the ‹Support Department› student.

"‹Collector›? I did have some recollection about it. Correct me, but I think it's a job that makes it easier to gather rare drops, right?"

"A full score, Your Highness Lana. Ah, look at me. I mean to say I am awed by your breadth of knowledge. To get into the bottom of it, it provides a correction to drop and work on both rare drops and quantity. But the advantage walks in parallel with meager battle power."

Nico added to Lana's question. Her voice of words were mature, but that lacksidal and childish tone ruined the impression. I wager she would have appeared grown-up if only she put some energy into her voice a bit...hah, it seems like that childish appearance of her has mentally affected her tone as well.

After Nico finished speaking, I added additional, important details about ‹Collector›.

"Right, ‹Collector› provides a huge correction for drop. It's just a matter of time ‹Eden› steps up to D-rank, but that's just a tiny stepping stone for our grand scheme. However, the demand for resources like equipment or items is sure to shoot up. Niico here is the solution to this problem."

"Hmm, just sit and watch, Brave-kun. Though I will leave the status arrangement to you as promised, and I will also do my best to not pull your leg in the dungeon. So do bring in any peculiar item my way for study, alright?" S~ᴇaʀᴄh the NøvᴇlFirᴇ(.)nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Thus, the contract was sealed. Nico and mine gaze crossed and we both snickered. If only the distance between us weren't keeping us part, we would have been exchanging a firm handshake.

Darling of the crowd—‹Collector› had shared a similar significance in the game. The reason was its no-less-than-mystical aspect of raising the treasure chest count, which was only possible through the blessing of ‹Sachineko-sama› until now. Its unique skill ‹Rare Drop Collection› could increase the count of treasure chests occasionally by one. In a rare boss case, the drop would become three.

Unfortunately, the maximum number of treasure chests that could drop at once was capped at 4. So it was impossible to aim for anything higher than ‹Perfect Beauty-4 Phenomenon›. It was really, really sad since I would have killed to see 5 ‹Gold Chest› at once.

But behold, that wasn't the end of the amazing effect it provided. It also had an extraordinary ability capable of raising the rare drop rate—‹Rare Drop Up›. It's self-explanatory. Take ‹Advanced Job Ascension Ticket› for example, ‹Rare Drop Up LV10› could raise its drop rate from 2% to 3.6%. We get a helping hand for ‹Gold Chest›, though this also means ‹Wooden Chest› days were numbered as the downside.

A final touch to this magnificent piece of Galette des Rois was ‹Last Attack Bonus›. The fève in this case was the coup de grace to the boss, that further raised the effect of ‹Rare Drop Up›. A never to miss combination if the player's goal was the ‹Gold Chest›.

Pair this with the ‹Gambler›, who had the unique skill ‹One Retry› to re-do the treasure chest drop, you had ‹Gold Chest› hunting unit ready. I often did so in the game. The combo of corresponding jobs in group plus the ‹Coin›, ‹Sachineko-sama› etc setting was a fully tested way to score at least 1 ‹Gold Chest› among 3 tries.

Well, the handicap was obvious as well—the two jobs come with meager combat potential, or maybe might as well not count them in. So, it would easily turn into 3 members challenging the boss, which often led to party wipeout. Though it was fun in itself.

‹Guest Bracelet› was off-limits in this case since the usage of skill in that case was a beautiful way to break them. The remaining option then was simply the standard party option. Well, the gain far outweighed the loss though!

However party wipeout wasn't an entertaining idea in reality for me, I only managed to have a fragment of that necessary puzzle, ‹Collector›. It's another matter that I just didn’t find a gambler.

The one who managed to achieve this was of course our social butterfly Misato. A student with a ‹Collector› related job was something I really wanted to ease our further movement, so I had asked her to look for one.

Misato had presented three candidates and Nico was the only one with a high-ranking job. In addition to her alright personality, I decided to recruit her. Besides, the advanced version of ‹Collector›, ‹Treasure Hunter› was capable of taking attack and scouting roles to some extent, so I was counting on her in that aspect.

Speaking of Nico, she was a researcher...aspirant to be more precise. ‹Collector› was one such tool for her to achieve that dream of hers. In fact, one of the conditions she had given was to freely research rare items. It was impossible to turn it into individual possession, but if it was something that belonged to a guild, that was equivalent to owning it. Though, I did ask her to lend them if others were in need of said item, which she readily agreed to.

Following the setting, we establish our contract.

Incidentally, she was currently eyeing the ‹Dungeon Carriage›. i told her "if it's just 'Ver.2', she can borrow it anytime", she jumped in delight when she heard it. She was unexpectedly simple-minded for someone with such maturish speech, and easy to please as well.

Now that she was in, I was going to start on my mission: ticket hunt in the Int-low that I had in my mind to follow once my schedule free up. Couple with ‹Coin›, ‹Flute› and her help, I had the inkling that I might actually get it.

I also had taken countermeasures against the dreadful nightmare of the ‹Dungeon Activity› player—‹Yokai: One More Left›. The codename of the strategy was ‹Trident Descent - Die Yokai›, basically countering it with countermeasure. Fuhahaha!

The day when ‹Eden› would get its 5th ‹Advanced Job Ascenion Ticket› was just around the corner.

(T/N - Trident basically means a three pronged way of collector job, coin and Sachineko-sama here.)