Poor Derenola, his Unique Ability is so useful even random encount monster C has a special skill with the same name.
I went through and checked but after SS23, there"s only 1 more BADEND SS I know about and it"s like SS33~ or so near the end of the dungeon arc. So not many more BADENDs remaining, the rest of the SS are plot/characters with some development....
Next chapter in 16-20~ hours but after that expect a number of chapters pretty quick again.
Year 7444, Month 11, Day 30
Ah, of course we aren"t heading straight towards the center of the desert. We"re just walking along the wall.
We entered this pseudo-monster room from the Eastern side, the 3 o"clock position, and then we"re circling around clockwise towards the 6 o"clock position, the Southern direction as we proceed. Our feet sink into the sand and it"s difficult to walk.
Everyone is remaining cautious as we proceed for a short while but no monsters in particular appeared or came to attack us, so maybe this isn"t a monster room? and just as I started thinking that it happened.
In the direction of the center of the room the sand suddenly started rise and almost as if it was a mole"s burrow it stretched out towards our direction. The speed is about as fast as an adult can walk. If we take into consideration that it"s moving inside of the sand then it"s an unexpectedly high speed. Since Bel noticed that ahead of everyone else she warned us.
"Look! Something is coming!"
Without hesitation I gave out the order.
"Spread out!"
This is strange, I just used the spell {Detect.Life} a moment ago. Even though that mole"s nest seemed to rise up only a bit over 10 meters away from here I don"t get why it wasn"t caught in it. Obviously everyone in the party was detected by it. However, right now isn"t the time to be bothering over that.
In any case, for the time being the opponent only seems to be one (it"s one right?), it seems like it would be best to scatter out it"s targets for starters and once it shows itself we can use spells to finish it off. I put my bayonet on my shoulder and stretched out both of my hands towards the direction the mole"s nest is approaching. It might be good to shoot it before it comes out but the sand might dampen the power. Ah, well, I guess it"s fine.
"I"m shooting!"
After I said that I used the spell {Stone Heavy Catapult} and sent one telephone pole into the front of the mole"s nest. Just as I hoped, the telephone pole that went flying at high speed stabbed sharply into the front of it and probably pierced through the target inside of the sand. After taking the hit from the telephone pole, the mole"s nest which was heading towards Zulu suddenly rose up scattering sand all over as if it exploded......
This is bad~ what the h.e.l.l is that? It"s deep red and purple outer skin seems to have a thickness of about 1 meter. On the end there"s something like a circular hole or a mouth and there"s countless small sharp blade-like teeth inside of it.
【】
【As.e.xual/13/7/6925.Larvae Purple Worm】
【State: Stab Wound】
【Age: 519 Years Old】
【Level: 10】
【HP: 1390(1740) MP: 51(51)】
【Strength: 45】
【Speed: 7】
【Dexterity: 1】
【Endurance: 42】
【Special Skill: Highly Efficient Digestive System】
【Special Skill: Burrowing】
The damage from the telephone pole was roughly halved. In the first place, what in the world is that, it"s cheating right!
Furthermore it"s still a larva. What in the world would it be like if it turned into an adult!? Even if I freeze it I feel like it would break out. Once it reaches that size I feel like the matter of Strength really doesn"t make much difference, really. However, I"m sure it"s at least worth trying.
Attack spells starting flying from everyone soon and stabbed into the huge earthworm consecutively. However, it did almost no damage. Without delay I started moving to the area where it"s body seems to be and hardened it with a 5 meter cube of ice..ga~!!! It failed. Since it"s an earthworm after all, of course it"s body is long.
The huge earthworm brought out the rest of it"s body not frozen from inside of the sand and started struggling around with it"s frozen head. Simultaneously it started eating the ice from inside. From inside of it"s mouth-like hole several smaller mouths appeared and they"re biting at the ice. At the same time it"s moving it"s body forward through the portion of ice it"s eaten. If it"s like that then it"s head will probably make it out again in another couple dozen seconds or so.
Something like a huge earthworm with it"s head covered in ice struggling all over the place to try and get that off, it"s too dangerous to approach. After all that ice has a weight of over 100 tons. If we were to get hit by that there"s no way to survive. Thanks to the ice the level of attack spells everyone can use have become completely useless. However, we earned some precious time.
"Run past it!"
After hearing my orders everyone started running at full speed. I turned around while running but I could see it still swinging it"s head covered in ice around in agony in the same place. Hmph, it seems it can"t move backwards. And in that case, after it breaks the ice, it would either have to open hole to burrow in the sand or slide along the surface.
It was then that some electricity pa.s.sed by my side cutting through the air aimed at the huge earthworm. Miduchi must have used the spell {Lightning Bolt}. Idiot, since it"s close to pure water it shouldn"t pa.s.s water almost at all. And, that"s what I was thinking and was about to say something but the electricity Miduchi fired ran along the surface of the ice and arrived at the portion that wasn"t covered in ice. It seems it properly did some damage.
When the huge earthworm took the electricity it started intensely squirming around and most of it"s body that was in the sand came out. Cheers came from everyone. Then I"ll hit it with one as well. However, using {Chain Lightning}. Furthermore I"ll hit it with one with plenty of increased power! An even thicker blue electricity surged forth from my hand towards the area that wasn"t covered in ice. The sound of the air being violently torn echoes out as the sparks from the electricity cover the body of the huge earthworm.
The huge earthworm squirmed around even more violently but after taking electricity multiple times and the attack spells of the other members it just started convulsing and stopped moving.
It"s HP is -84. The condition has changed to Death.
When I tried slowly confirming it"s status and wow it seems it"s lifespan is 10,000 years. 500 years really is just a small larva. Also, after all it seems they can"t move backwards and the majority of it"s body structure is made up of the digestive system and muscle. Since it has a digestive system that can even digest inorganic substances, something organic like a single person can be digested in roughly 12 minutes. It"s eyes have degenerated but it seems it finds it"s prey by detecting the vibrations that pa.s.s through the ground. I wonder if it"s normally eating ogres and goblins?
Putting myself aside, a considerable amount of experience points went to Miduchi. Well her level was originally pretty low so I"m sure it would be good for her to level up some more. It took us three hours to find the magic stone. The magic stone was the size of an adults fist on the same level as the Death=Tyrant.Kin but the value wasn"t that high. It"s color isn"t as white either. Though I say that, there"s no mistake it"s worth quite a bit. With identify the value of just this one is 3,070,000. I guess that means if we sell it then it would be over 21,000,000 Z. Out of the magic stones taken from just a single monster, excluding the Death=Tyrant.Kin it"s the largest one we"ve found. I wonder what the Vampires was?
After that we proceeded down the pa.s.sage to the south of the room(?) but once again it was a dead end.
We returned to the 6th floor heartbroken. Even I can tell everyone"s shoulders dropped as they"re worrying about it. In about 10 hours the room boss will revive. Though I don"t think it"s limited to just a {Purple Worm} next time so I can understand the gloom.
.................
Year 7444, Month 12, Day 4
Yesterday we returned from the dungeon and it"s another three day holiday starting today. We couldn"t get to that monster room since then. It"s all just dead ends again. Since we predicted that the magic stone of the {Purple Worm} would sell more in a magic tool store of the capital, we haven"t sold it yet.
During this holiday but it seems that Miduchi is going to confine herself to the dungeon together with Zulu and Angela to earn some experience and Ralpha and Gwine were getting excited about eating and drinking at a new restaurant that just opened up. Giberuti said he was going to do trial and error on a new menu so there"s no choice but to leave him alone. Toris and Bel are back to flirting the same as usual so I didn"t try calling out to them in the first place.
If Zenom didn"t say he was going to sub-Baron Logflat"s place then I probably would have confined myself to the dungeon as well. However, since Zenom is going to the capital I decided to go to my company in the capital while selling off the magic stone. I don"t have any intention of staying the night but after our business is done we made plans to meet up at my store.
Zenom is riding Miduchi"s horse and I"m riding my own as we split up ways at the entrance to Rombertia. I was planning to stop by the magic tool shop before going to the company and change it to cash but I thought again it would be fun to show off such a huge magic stone to Anna and Hanna so I decided to stop my Greed Company on my horse first.
"Ah, Presichent~ chank you for your works"
Hanna who was sweeping in front of the store managed to find me quickly and lowered her head.
"Ah~ Hanna, have you been well? I"ll show you something good. Is Anna inside?"
I connect my horse to the stake in front of the shop and after taking off my bag with the magic stone inside I called out to Hanna.
"Eh? Something good? What is it?"
Hanna followed after me as I entered the store.
"Hanna! Did you finish sweeping?"
Seeing that Yotlen put both hands at her hips and warned her.
"Well it"s fine, I got my hands on a bit of something good. I doubt you"ll see it very often so pardon her a bit."
When I calmed her down and Yotlen said with an apologetic face.
"No..if the president says that then.."
"And, where"s Anna?"
"I just had her go off to buy some lunch..I"m sorry."
"Ah, I see. Then I"ll wait until she comes back. Give me some tea."
After I said that I smiled at Kamnal who was looking over here while hiding in the shadow of a pillar from further in the store. Kamnal who"s still small is sucking his finger while making a face like "Who"s this person?" and looking over here. I sat down on the reception use sofa and called him over before he timidly came.
"Kanna, here, have some candy~"
I took a small bag of candy pieces that I purchased on the way out from my bag with the magic stone and after taking one out from inside I smiled and showed it to Kamnal and approached me. After letting him suck on one, I patted his head and Hanna seems to have made the bean tea.
"President, I"m sorry as usual."
Yotlen lowered her head apologizing for the trouble but I just waved my hand and stopped her and
"It"s fine. If I can buy Kanna"s favor with this much then it"s cheap. Right!"
and said that while patting Kamnal"s head as he was in a daze with sucking the candy. I just remember my nephew Rentaro that I used to dote on in my past life. He doesn"t resemble him at all though.
"And also, Yotlen, I"m giving you a raise in salary for your wages starting next year. Yours will be 300,00 per month, Anna will be 130,000, and Hanna will be 100,00."
"Eh? Thank you very much! I"ll give it my best effort!"
"I think you worked very well for this past year. But, as expected I don"t think there will be anymore large raises like this one for a while."
After this as long as there"s no problem I"ll raise everyone"s salaries by 10,000 Z per year. Once Kamnal gets older enough that he gets counted in the individual tax and starts working I"ll employ him as well. If they have salaries of this level along with the savings from selling the store I"m sure they"ll have no problem living normally.
While we were talking about recent events Hanna carried out the bean tea. I thanked her and offered Hanna a piece of candy as well and she started licking away at it happily.
"I"m home. President, thank you for your work."
While I was sipping at the bean tea Anna returned. It seems she went to buy some black rye bread. She did say it was purchasing lunch. As expected of Rombertia being the capital, there"s places cooking bread every day. When I lived in Bakuddo there was nothing like a bakery so every household cooked about a weeks worth of bread at once and from the next day on you had to bite into hard bread with all your power.
"Ah~ Anna, come over here. I"ll show you something good."
I give Anna a piece of candy to suck on as well and took the magic stone of the {Purple Worm} out of the bag and put on the table.
"Ua~ it"s big!"
"This, is it a magic stone?"
"It"s extremely big right."
"It came out of a monster we defeated in the dungeon in Baldukk the other day. There"s not many of them out there with this size right?"
I came to brag about it and in additionally,
"Check it"s status, even like this it"s a singular magic stone, isn"t it amazing?"
I said and held my nose high.
"It"s quite impressive..as expected of the president."
Yotlen let out a sight seeing the status. It seems like Anna and Hanna don"t really get it. But, I"m sure they haven"t seen a magic stone this large before so it should be a good experience. Though I don"t know what kind of experience.
"By the way, as expected when it reaches this point I was worried about if the magic tool store in Baldukk would buy it. Zenom..That dwarf though, Zenom said if it"s this large of a singular magic stone with this much mana in it then it might not be easy to set a price on, so I brought it to the capital. Yotlen do you know anything in that regard?"
When I said that Yotlen made a slightly troubled expression and,
"It"s my first time seeing a magic stone this splendid and the ones I"ve normally used are small after all..I"m very sorry, but I don"t know of any."
and said that. If I think about it then that"s true. If you"re just living normally you would see or use something like this...
"I see, well it"s fine. I guess I"ll try going to a big magic tool shop."
I finish drinking my bean tea before putting it back in my bag and standing up.
"After this, Zenom should come here. Since he"s waiting for me offer him some tea or something."
After I said that I got on my horse and left the store.
...............
Magic tool shop {Splendor}. It"s the largest magic tool shop in the capital. After walking through the entrance and as expected I could tell it"s quite a bit different from the magic tool shops in Keel and Baldukk. The store interior was attentively cleaned and there"s not a single bit of dust. The walls inside of the store are lined up with lightning magic tools that have high-cla.s.s designs. Of course, there"s also stoves of various sizes displayed and things like {steamers} or ovens for baking bread, {refrigerators}, {freezer}, {humidifier}, {air conditioner}, {dryer}, and various types of consumer appliance like things. Though I say that, they"re not all the proper types like the ones we found in the dungeon.
The {refrigerator} here is the time which can only fit about four cans of beer and the {humidifier} isn"t intended for a room but just blowing water vapor on your face, most of them are just for aesthetic use or basically toys. About the only decent one I think is the {dryer}? I don"t need it though. Those sorts of toy-like consumer appliance magic tools were boasting some considerably high prices. The reason why the security is pretty light is probably because there"s only fakes in the displays I"m sure.
I briskly walk through the display area of products and after going to the counter further back I asked the shop clerk or owner or whatever to purchase a magic stone.
"How many is it?"
Since they asked politely, I"m sure the quality of their clients must be pretty high. Since the things they"re selling are what they are after all. It"s probably a store meant for n.o.bles.
"Just one."
After I said that they definitely didn"t look down on me but I could see their face was a bit disappointed.
"It"s this. It"s from a monster we defeated in the dungeon of Baldukk the other day."
I grabbed the magic stone from my bag and put it on the counter. It"s the size of an adults fist and has a weight of about 1.5 kg, an exceptionally large one. The color itself is grey though. Seeing that the store clerk opened their eyes in surprise and started taking out the weighing magic tool.
"This is..quite large indeed. I"m sure there would be demand for it from our customers who make use of large scale magic tools. It"s a splendid mother stone.."
and showed admiration.
"After all will the price be based on the amount of mana in it?"
and I asked that,
"Of course. However, if it"s this large it seems like it could have quite a few merged together with it so there"s no mistake it"s worth more than just the value of it"s mana. Would you mind leaving it with us for a few days?"
and said. Since there"s no particular problem I nodded. In addition, while the store clerk was checking my status and taking memos,
"That magic stone is taken from just a single monster but will the value not get any higher?"
and I said that.
"Ho! It"s singular with this size, and tint..it might take a bit of time to put a price on it. Please excuse me, {status open}..I see now..this isn"t a matter of just mana. The only thing regrettable is that the tint isn"t very good."
I shrug my shoulders while,
"Well there"s no problem if it sells for a decent price. Please take care of it for me."
I said that and left the store.
Two days later, a messenger came to "Boil Manor" in Baldukk from {Splendor}. It seems the magic stone sold. The price was.. a bit over 56,000,000 Z. Magic tool shop {Splendor} seems to have profited quite a bit in a matter of just two days. I did too though.
It was the sale of a magic stone but since it seems to have sold as a work of art (if it"s that price then it"s probably as an art piece), so the luxury tax occurs on it but the profit is still big. When I told everyone about it they cheered. The bonus exceeded 1 gold coin per person (1,000,000 Z) after all.
I became a bit wiser thanks to this matter. Though I had predicted it a bit but it"s been confirmed that large singular magic stones sell for a high price. I couldn"t test it until now after all. You could say it"s regrettable about the magic stone of the Death=Tyrant.Kin but if I really wanted to I could go and defeat a monster on the same level as it. Since it"s frightening I don"t want to go though.
However..the places which have money really have tons of it.