CH.352 Unika questioning the Evolution

CH.352 Unika questioning the Evolution

As I was just hanging in my office, working on some items with the item developer, someone came to see me and I let them inside.

“... Brian. May I ask something?” Unika asked after she came inside.

“... you know that is already a question, but go for it.” I gave permission. I wonder how many times I’ll get to use that line. I mean, you are already asking a question to ask a question. Well, I suppose it is more like asking for permission, but still.

“... don’t you think it is strange that Einar is evolving now?” Unika asked.

“Not really. Why?”

“Usually you would evolve the next day after killing monsters.” Unika said. “But it took three days for Einar to evolve. Isn’t that strange?”

“No. He leveled up again after the hunt.” I told Unika.

“... but how? I know training can level you up, but it's only really effective when you are under level 10. It would take many months of practice to level up once at the levels where evolution is possible.”

“... Unika. Do you know who I am?”

“... Brian? My employer? An A-rank adventurer? I don’t see how that relates to this.” She commented.

“No. I’m a cheater. Well, I personally think calling me a Pack Opener is more appropriate, but I feel like a lot of people would say cheater. And you want to know the best part about cheaters? Well, some of them at least. In non competitive games, they help the other people who need help.”

“... I’m not sure I understand what you mean.” Unika admitted.

“I really didn’t expect you to.” I told her as I stood up from my desk. “Give me your hand. I’ll explain it to both you and Cailie.”

Unika carefully took a hold of my hand, and basically as soon as she did, I teleported both of us to floor 8 of the dungeon part of HomeBase.

“... where?”

“We are still on HomeBase, if that is what you are wondering.” I answered Unika. “This is floor 8, also known as the CropFarm.”

“I ... I didn’t know about this.”

“Not many do. It is a really new addition, so basically just me, Alice, Lua, Agunan and Ria know about it. As well as Cailie, as I gave her the job of watching over it.” I told Unika. “Come on. Cailie is this way.” I said, as I began walking ahead, and after a second of catching the surroundings, Unika took a few quick steps to catch up to me, before she began walking just a bit behind me and to the left.

“... so, is this where the food we eat comes from?” Unika asked.

“At the moment, no. We haven’t gotten the first harvest yet, so for now I’m buying all the food. Well, the meat comes from a different source, but all the grains we eat are bought.”Reêad latest novels at novelhall.com

“... Isn’t that expensive?”

“A bit, but we do need food, so it is a necessary expense. And grains aren’t as expensive as meat, so it isn’t that bad.”

“Where do you get the meat, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“From here as well. I don’t know if you realized, but HomeBase is a dungeon.” I told Unika as I raised my left arm to remind her that I had my terminal right there. “While this floor has no monsters, the floors above and below this one do. Alice, Ria, Agunan and I all sometimes come here and hunt a few monsters, and then we use that monster's meat as our meal. And I also still have quite a bit of monsters left from when the five of us cleared this place before I founded HomeBase.”

“... you cleared a dungeon with just five people?”

“Yeah. I mean, Agunan is a dragon and I can summon powerful monsters, so just the two of us could probably do it.” I admitted.

“... Yes. You probably could.” Unika agreed. “But isn’t monster meat from dungeons dangerous if not purified by a priest? Is it really safe for us to eat? I don’t think there is a priest on HomeBase. Or can one of your summoned monsters purify miasma?”

“... Could I try one?”

“If you want. But let’s wait until Cailie’s song ends. I’ll let both of you use one.”

After Cailie’s song came to an end, I applauded her. That was because her song was good, but also to get her attention.

She turned to face us and quickly turned away again. Then after doing something to probably gather herself, she turned back to us and floated to us. ... that sounded like Cailie can fly. She isn’t there yet. She just has a levitating wheelchair. ... I don’t know why I call it a wheelchair, when it literally has no wheels.

“Brian. And ... Unika was it? What are you doing here?” Cailie asked.

“I just had something I wanted to tell both you and Unika. And I needed a private place for it, so I came here.” I told her. “And I wanted to see how the crops were doing. And they seem to be growing fine.”

“Unnaturally quickly.” Cailie said. “I know you said the fertilizer is special, but there should be no way for crops to grow this fast without some sort of growth boost magic tool. I think we’ll be able to harvest them after another week or so.”

“I am also guiding some of the excess mana here, so that might have an effect. Maybe I should summon a nature spirit to help me make some nature magic stones? Those might accelerate the growth even more.” I pondered aloud. “I could even make some growth boosting magic devices.”

“... Excess mana?” Unika questioned.

“Oh right. You two don’t know about that. The flowers outside. They produce mana. I use it to fuel all the floating magic circles of HomeBase, but those magic circles don’t use all of it, so some of it will have to be dispersed. So instead of letting it all disperse, I guided some down here.”

“... flowers that make mana?” Unika questioned.

“Yeah. They are kind of custom made. And they don’t technically make mana, but Spell Counters. But Spell Counters can be converted into mana, so it is effectively the same.”

“... are you sure it is a good idea to tell us that?” Unika asked.

“No clue. But go ahead. Tell someone about HomeBase and see if they’ll believe it.”

“... they probably wouldn’t.” Unika admitted.

“Maybe if I told them while using my skill?” Cailie pondered.

“That might work, but I don’t think you’d do something like that.” I said. I mean, that is a quick way to get the bad ending in the ‘let’s try to make Brian love me’ game that Cailie started when she confessed to me. “But that isn’t why we are here, so how about I get to that.” I reminded the two.

I brought a table out of Storage, set out some chairs for Unika and I, and then brought out some sweets and drinks so that we could have some tea. Tea in the middle of big crop fields just seems like a good idea. Especially when there are no insects on HomeBase. ... well there are, but not on this floor.

I then began to explain things to the duo. Mainly about Level Up!, but Unika also wanted to know more about Card Summoner.

This led me to explain a bit about my cards, though not how I ‘make’ them. Mainly how you can use them, what difference does it make to have Card Summoner versus not having it and so on. I even let both of them try it, with Unika summoning Fox Fire and Cailie calling out Mermaid Knight. I of course also explained to both of them the one way I knew you could get Card Summoner. Unika was quite interested and asked if I’d take her to TinaWood Dungeon at some point, and I agreed to it, but Cailie seemed just a bit scared about having to fight monsters for the skill.

Spoiler[collapse]

Then we got to the interesting part. The Level Ups. Well, interesting for me, because that meant that I got to see the two’s status. I didn’t demand it, because I could level them up as long as I knew at least one of their skills, but after Cailie quickly agreed, Unika also agreed to show hers.

SpoilerName: CailieRace: Mer-folkLevel: 17HP: 530Mana: 570Strength: 294Defense: 342Magic: 184 Skills:Swift Swimming LV.2 (racial) Charming Voice LV.2 (extra) Knife Technique LV.1Hiding LV.2 Sneak Attack LV.1 Mana Control LV.1Gardening LV.2Singing LV.2Performance LV.1 Hallow Prison PrevailerA Banished OneOne that is Abused[collapse]SpoilerName: UnikaRace: Fox-folkLevel: 43HP: 1228Mana: 1322Strength: 1122Defense: 508Magic: 470 Skills:Foxfire LV.1 (racial) Tamer’s Paradise LV.3 (extra) Bow Technique LV.6Quick Shot LV.4Hidden Shot LV.3Knife Technique LV.2Power Boost LV.3Defense Boost LV.2Mana Control LV.5Embedded Shot LV.2Summoning Magic LV.1Taming LV.4 Language Comprehension (beast)[collapse]

Both of them were impressive in their own ways. Cailie had a lot of low level skills, including Hiding and Sneak Attack. Gardening, Singing and Performance must be from her time at the Hero’s country. And Swift Swimming as her racial skill makes perfect sense. Not so sure about her titles though. Especially that last one. Sure it is crossed out now, but the fact that Cailie has it is alarming in of itself.

Unika on the other hand. I think she is the first one I’ve ever seen to have higher strength than HP. And even her mana is just 50 points above her strength, so her strength seems super high. She also has quite the frail defenses, despite having the Defense Boost skill. And she has multiple bow related skills, Quick Shot, Hidden Shot and even Embedded Shot.

All around, both are impressive in their own rights. I think Cailie is the more impressive, considering that she said that she was banished due to being ‘useless’, but looking at her status, she seems quite useful. Yes I understand that at least 4, if not 5 of her skills were obtained after she was banished, but even with just Hiding, Sneak Attack and Knife Technique she could be quite strong.

Unika was impressive in different ways, mainly just the sheer number of bow related skills and her super high strength. But even outside of that, once she learns some more magic skills to support her bow, she will be a real powerhouse. I also wonder. She might not have a magic attribute like Alice, so I might be able to get a reward for that one mission if I give her one. I feel like both her and her brother could use the Fire attribute to go with their Foxfire racial skill.

Well, that can come later. For now, let’s level the duo up and see where we’ll go from there. For Unika, let’s go with Foxfire so that she can practice it with Fox Fire, and for Cailie, I think Gardening will be the best. It is kind of her job, so it should help. Maybe she will even get a Farming skill at some point.

SpoilerName: CailieRace: Mer-folkLevel: 19 [+2]HP: 570 [+40]Mana: 590 [+20]Strength: 322 [+28]Defense: 376 [+34]Magic: 192 [+8] Skills:Swift Swimming LV.2 (racial) Charming Voice LV.2 (extra) Knife Technique LV.1Hiding LV.2 Sneak Attack LV.1 Mana Control LV.1Gardening LV.3 [+1]Singing LV.2Performance LV.1 Hallow Prison PrevailerA Banished OneOne that is Abused[collapse]SpoilerName: UnikaRace: Fox-folkLevel: 45 [+2]HP: 1246 [+18]Mana: 1394 [+72]Strength: 1134 [+12]Defense: 516 [+8]Magic: 530 [+60] Skills:Foxfire LV.2 (racial) [+1] Tamer’s Paradise LV.3 (extra) Bow Technique LV.6Quick Shot LV.4Hidden Shot LV.3Knife Technique LV.2Power Boost LV.3Defense Boost LV.2Mana Control LV.5Embedded Shot LV.2Summoning Magic LV.1Taming LV.4 Language Comprehension (beast)[collapse]

I hope the two of them will keep growing more powerful and will master new skills. And I’ll of course help in any way I can.