NOVEL NEXT Chapter 46 - Dust Accumulates to Form a Mountain
“Reina?”
“N-No! It’s nothing.”
(What’s happening to me?)
For some reason, Reina blushed when their eyes met. She denied it and returned to her usual expressionless face, but even in the dim room, her red ears were noticeable. She covered her face with her hands, trying to cool down her flushed cheeks with her cold hands.
(Since that time, whenever I’m with Kenya, I feel warm.)
Reina didn’t understand it well. Since that time when he held her hand and told her not to die. Since that time when they braced themselves to die together, back to back.
When she’s with Kenya, she feels warm. He stands naturally beside her in her world, where she used to think she was all alone. In Reina’s world, Kenya’s presence had become significant.
“Well, maybe we should come up with a plan for now.”
(Am I happy? Is Reina? What’s happening…)
To divert from his embarrassment, Kenya decided to come up with a plan for his part-time job, which was alchemy.
“Oh, um, if there’s anything I can help with, please let me know!”
Reina also joined in, declaring that she would help if she could.
“Um, then could you count how many soldier gauntlets are in the cardboard boxes? I want to grasp the total number.”
“Understood!”
Reina then ran off. Their conversation had been awkward and clumsy, but they might calm down a bit by separating for a while.
(Alright, let’s come up with a plan for now.)
Kenya took the paper and pen on the desk and started calculating how much he could alchemize and how much work he could do.
(Let’s see, thanks to the evolution, there’s no limit on the number of times I can alchemize E-rank, or soldier series, weapons.)
Kenya’s alchemy skill had leveled up, allowing him to alchemize up to A-rank items. Additionally, the limit on the number of times he could alchemize the lowest-rank items had been removed.
(Next, how many times can I alchemize if I allocate all my status points to intelligence?)
“Status!”
ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー
Name: Mikenju Kenya
DP: 42300 pt
Occupation: Alchemist
– Alchemy Lv13: 1,000,000 pt to next level
(Can alchemize A-rank weapons 10 times per day: +1 time for every 10 intelligence)
(Can alchemize E-rank weapons infinitely)
(Can convert equipment to alchemy seeds: seeds can be used for alchemy of the same rank)
– Status Alchemy LvMAX
(Can freely allocate current status points by thinking)
◆ Equipment
Weapon: [Zanbatou Lv1]
Head: [Spirit Crown Lv1]
Body: [Black Dragon Robe Lv1]
Hands: [Imperial Gauntlets Lv1]
Feet: [Imperial Greaves Lv1]
Accessory: [Goblin King’s Necklace Lv1]
◆ Status
Attack: 0 (+1400) ▼
Defense: 0 (+1000) ▼
Agility: 0 (+400) ▼
Intelligence: 0 (+500) ▼
ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー
(Hmm, the total status points are 1400 + 1000 + 400 + 500, making it 3300. If I allocate all to intelligence, I can alchemize 330 times a day plus 10, making it 340 times.)
“So many things I can do now, it’s getting confusing. Speaking of which, amidst the chaos, what exactly is an alchemy seed?”
As Kenya pondered, Reina approached, carrying a cardboard box.
“Kenya, I counted. Each box contains about 10 items.”
Reina brought one of the cardboard boxes to me. I peeked inside and saw a set of dirty soldier gauntlets and greaves thrown in randomly. Indeed, there were about 10 items.
“And there are about 20 boxes on each shelf, with several rows of shelves, so roughly, there are about 10,000 boxes.”
A mountain of cardboard boxes in a giant warehouse. It indeed looked like there were more than ten thousand.
(With that many, I guess I don’t need to worry about the exact count.)
It’s been 20 years since dungeons appeared. There must be no other equipment as abundant as the soldier series. Because of that, they are already saturated in the market, and second-hand or damaged ones have no value.
Nowadays, giving soldier series items to children as Christmas presents is customary, but only new items. No parent would give their child second-hand goods worth about 1000 yen as a present. If they did, sorry.
“Thanks, Reina. Okay, let’s try making one alchemy seed.”
(It’s okay to use one, right? He said to do as I like.)
Kenya picked up a piece of equipment. Usually, the thought of alchemy would come to mind, but today, both alchemy and alchemy seed came to mind.
(Alright! Convert to alchemy seed!)
Conversion♪ Soldier Gauntlet → Alchemy Seed (E)
What appeared was a white sphere, or rather a round lump? It wasn’t heavy, but it wasn’t light either. It wasn’t metal, but it wasn’t soft either. Something mysterious, a white round lump, had replaced the soldier gauntlet.
(So this is an alchemy seed… It’s white, but will the color change with other ranks?)
Kenya then tried alchemizing the round lump made from the soldier gauntlet with a soldier greave.
(If the explanation is correct, this lump should be able to alchemize with any E-rank equipment…)
Level Up♪ Soldier Greave Lv2
With the usual cheerful sound, the alchemy succeeded. This means that an alchemy seed can be used for alchemy with any equipment of the same rank. Indeed, it would be challenging to collect ten of the same equipment for B-rank and higher, as many have unique names.
“So, if I convert this into an alchemy seed?”
The white sphere doubled. This means converting a Lv2 item into a seed creates two seeds.
“Kenya, what are you doing?”
“Oh, my job is an alchemist. I can combine equipment to level them up.”
Reina, with a curious look, brought her face close to the sphere, poking and stroking it with her finger.
“What an amazing job…”
“Yeah, this power has saved me many times. Reina, could you bring some more boxes and spread out the items inside them?”
“Understood.”
Reina went to get more boxes.
(Wait… With status alchemy, the Spirit Crown and Black Dragon Robe can evolve. If I evolve them first, I can increase the number of alchemies.)
Among the current B-rank equipment, the Imperial Series and Zanbatou cannot evolve. However, the Spirit Crown is ★2, and the Black Dragon Robe is ★4, so they can still evolve. With so many soldier series items, I should be able to make B-rank alchemy seeds through repeated alchemy.
“Alright! Let’s plan to evolve these first. I might be able to do it today!”
Kenya then started calculating on paper how to evolve these two items.
Then he realized his naive thinking…
…
“Let’s see, the number of alchemies is… 18,000 times!!??”