CH 149

We’re having a banquet tonight. We beat our first boss floor, but what we’re really celebrating is their reunion.

Taliyah and the others help me cook, and I try making something new too. Beef stew. I think I replicated the flavor pretty well, but what’s more important is that Hikari and the others like it, since they don’t know what it’s supposed to taste like anyway.

I also cook meat I normally don’t use, like shadow wolf meat. Mostly grilled steaks. Of course, I accompany that with various vegetables, because it’s important to keep that balance.

While we eat, the conversation always finds its way to me and Sera. Everyone’s introduced themselves, but that only scratched the surface.

We also talk about our adventures. Rurika and Chris’ experiences in the beast kingdom, our adventures in the dungeon, and stuff like that.

We finish off this fun time by having sweets as a dessert. Taliyah and Elsa return to their room with a sleeping looking Alto, and Hikari and Mia go take a bath.

The ones left in the guest room have some drinks (juice), and we talk a little more about our respective situations.

“I see, so you’re a stray… I figured you were hiding something, because of the gaps in your common sense.”

“It’s natural. I got transported into a strange world all of a sudden. And you can’t blame me for being careful after the way I was treated.”

“That does sound pretty awful. But we met thanks to it, so I guess it’s not all bad.”

“That’s… True too I guess.”

Thanks for saying that.

“But I have a question. I was summoned into this world, but are there any other ways to come to this world, or other people that came here from other worlds?”

“Who knows? All I know about it is what I heard from grandma. She was a strange person, so she knew all sorts of things.”

Says Rurika, and the other two nod.

Ignis knew I’m an otherworlder by appraising me, but he assumed right away that I was summoned here. Does that mean he doesn’t know any other ways to come to this world?

“But nevermind that, I’m not so sure about you dragging cute girls around with you, especially slaves.”

That’s juice, you know? Why are you talking to me like you’re drunk? And with a mocking tone too.

“What choice do I have? I couldn’t get identification for Hikari, and a lot happened with Mia too.”

I talked to them about Hikari and Mia’s circumstances too, with their permission of course. Although Hikari seemed pretty indifferent about it.

Rurika and Chris were more surprised to hear that Hikari was watching me than Mia being a saint.

“So, what are you going to do next?”

“I guess go to the dungeon with you, if that’s possible. Maybe we’ll just get in the way, I don’t know.”

Are they worried about the gap in their strength being too wide after hearing about Sera’s heroic exploits?

“And money! We don’t have money!”

That sounded like it came straight from the heart. Like it was really earnest.

“We mostly walked when we were in the beast kingdom, but we’ve been moving around in omnibuses in the magic state, and we haven’t really been accepting quests.”

It sounds like they just wanted to reach Majolica as soon as possible.

The few escorting quests they did accept weren’t very profitable either, because they were more concerned with where they took them instead of how much they paid.

“Then you can just come with us. It’s fine, isn’t it master?”

“Sure. It can be pretty difficult with just four people.”

“That didn’t sound very persuasive.”

Sera is exasperated for some reason. Having more people lessens each person’s load when we keep watch at night, doesn’t it?

Although resources and stuff like that can be a problem in regular parties.

“For now, we need to aim for the tenth floor again. It wouldn’t be easy for just the two of you to catch up to us, right?”

Mia and Hikari are done with their bath, and Chris, Rurika, and Sera go next. After they’re done, it’s my turn.

Baths sure are nice. I wasn’t that big a fan of them in my world, but now I feel like looking for hot springs and stuff like that. I wonder if they exist over here.

Before I came in Rurika jokingly asked if she could come in with me. Chris jumped in to stop her with her face bright red, and Sera didn’t react at all. And eventually, even Rurika started to blush as she kept talking. She fell by her own sword.

When I’m done with my bath, I come back to see Rurika and Chris’ eyes looking kind of dead. Is it just my imagination?

I go back to my room and take a deep breath. So much happened today.

It was one unpleasant thing after the other since this morning, but I’m really happy about seeing those two again.

I really didn’t expect them to cry like that. Were they that worried about me?

I need to make sure I tell Siphon I’m alive too.

I take out materials from the Item Box. I have a lot of magic stones, but they’re all of poor quality. Now that I think about it, I heard something about magic stones having different grades. I should have probably started paying attention to that a long time ago.

My main source of income was always medicinal herbs, so I only focused on them when I was studying that sort of thing.

That said, if I combine magic stones of poor quality, I can make something better.

The problem is that performance drops compared to magic stones that were good to begin with, and I have to use a lot of them. It’s less of a problem since I’m the one collecting them, but if I was buying them in stores I’d go bankrupt in no time.

Not to mention that there’s only so much I can combine using Alchemy, and it requires an investment of time and magic energy.

Also, if I’m using magic stones instead of selling them, that cuts into my rewards, so I need to make sure I see some sort of return on this investment.

But the biggest issue right now is mithril. I was going to take it to that man in the weapon’s store, but I figure I could look into whether or not I could make a weapon myself.

And that’s why I decide to learn this.

Skill ‘Creation’. Effect, ‘Enables weapon, equipment, and magic item creation’.

At first I’m not sure how this is different from the Alchemy skill I’ve been using, but apparently I can see a list of blueprints of items discovered in this world in accordance to the skill’s level. It’s basically a superior version of Alchemy, that adds more items that I can make.

Although I still need to gather the items I need for what I want to make.

This doesn’t work by pounding metal, like a blacksmith. Apparently I can make a sword with magic energy the same way I make things with Alchemy. And I might even be able to use Alchemy and Effect Attachment in tandem with this to make the items have positive effects too.

I have a lot of ore, so I’m going to try making a throwing knife first. It will help me increase the skill’s proficiency too.

This really is like a dream skill that tickles a guy’s fancy. And apparently it’s a higher rank skill, because I had to spend two skill points to learn it.

Just thinking about it gets me a bit excited. I was going to go to sleep right away, but I feel wide awake.

It’s just a shame I don’t see any items related to firearms listed in the Creation skill.