Chapter 105.2

105 Part 2

Also, it was unclear what “activity temporarily stopped” meant.

It was impossible to know whether the log referred to the dungeon’s activity itself or if it was an activity that generated a new stampede.

“It says that it has lost all of its energy, its activity is now stopped, and the ‘next Stampede outbreak time has been delayed’. So maybe it means that the energy of the dungeon’s core was being used in order to generate the Stampedes.”

“Well, Stampedes are phenomena where several monsters appear and start overflowing from the dungeons.”

Given that energy is used to create a large number of monsters, Haruki’s idea would not be too far off the mark.

“So in order to prevent these Stampedes from occurring, you would need to keep absorbing this energy… Right, Karaboshi?

“Looks like it…”

Only after he had finished saying that did Haruki realize what an atrocious thing that Skill Board of his was.

It can be used to develop someone’s abilities, to empower their skills and skill trees, and even to control the Stampedes.

Should it become known that Stampedes could be controlled and delayed, there would certainly be petitions all over the place asking for adventurers to go to the deepest part of the dungeons where the cores would supposedly be located.

Haruki didn’t mind helping people.

He knew that by effectively preventing further Stampedes from taking place, he would be helping a lot of people.

However, if and when Haruki’s power alone would make it impossible to go around all of the dungeons, those who would have been saved by Haruki could easily turn the other way.

[Why won’t you defeat our dungeon!?] [Come and help the people of our city!] [Are you going to let us die?] [You monster!] [Discriminator!] [We’re gonna kill you!!]

This was no longer an item a single person could handle.

However, there was no sure method to transfer the Skill Board to someone else.

After a certain distance from the Skill Board, it would simply return to Haruki’s chest. Even if he handed it to someone else, it would return to Haruki just by leaving that person.

In that case, anyone who wanted to steal Haruki’s Skill Board would have no other choice but to kill him.

“Now I have even more reasons to not talk about my Skill Board with anyone else…”

“Yeah…”

Both of them seemed even more depressed.

If the existence of the Skill Board were to be revealed to the world, Haruki would be hunted down forever.

“If it comes to that, I can always MAX out my Stealth skill…”

“You can’t do that, Karaboshi! Don’t give up on yourself like that! What if no one can see you!?”

“But there may be no other way for me to–”

“No matter how small it may be, you can never give up hope on your presence!!”

“Kuh…!”

It was just as Karen said.

Haruki wiped out the tears that had started to form in his eyes.

— No matter how small it may be… Wait, what?

— Did Karen just diss me?

Haruki stared at Karen.

He couldn’t feel any malicious intent in Karen’s comment, though.

If this was her true opinion, which she let out without any malicious intent…

— Nah, I’m reading too much into things.

— That’s something too sad to be true!

It would appear that the Skill Board’s recent enhancements had turned Haruki a little naive.

The thoughtless speculation that had appeared in his mind almost broke his heart.

Wiping out the rest of his tears, Haruki shook the idea out of his head.

The Skill Board had become a little stronger, but Haruki would continue to do it.

He would continue to help people within his reach.

He would do his best to reach more people to help.

The most important thing for Haruki was to stand out.

And to obtain a fully-fledged presence!

“Well, we’ve saved the best for last! Let’s try out that new feature!”

Haruki brightened up his voice so as to shake off the dark mood, and tapped on the Skill Board.

Then, he swiped it until he reached the page of the new function, “Item Enhancement”.

“Umm… What’s this?”

The item enhancement that Haruki imagined was a function that literally enhanced the items that he had with him.

He couldn’t be that wrong about it.

Because if he were to be wrong…

[Item Enhancement]

[Remaining Points] 3089 pts

Pebble 0

Pebble 0

Pebble 0

Pebble 0

Pebble 0

…

…

Then all he could enhance were the pebbles at his feet, according to the Item Enhancement feature display.

It seemed that the board was able to perceive everything that was around Haruki.

As a test, Haruki walked forward one step at a time.

After about 10 steps, a “Giant Dark Tree Branch” was displayed on the board.

As he looked around, he found one of the boss’ branches that had fallen during the battle.

“Its detection range is pretty narrow.”

The branch was about 3 meters away from Haruki.

If it had been any wider than that, it would display an enormous amount of useless stuff lying around that he had no intention to enhance.

After returning to where he was standing earlier, Haruki then swiped down to the page that listed the pebbles.

No matter how much he swiped down, it was pebbles all over.

— They should call this function “Pebble Enhancement” instead…

Just as Haruki was about to give up…

“Oh!”

He found an item that wasn’t a pebble.

[Item Enhancement]

[Remaining Points] 3089 pts

Kokko Feather Necklace 0

Potato Stone 0

Potato Stone 0

Potato Stone 0

Potato Stone 0

Potato Stone 0

Potato Stone 0

The Kokko Feather Necklace was the one Haruki was wearing.

The potato stones need no explanation.

At that point, the only items that were confirmed were Rhea’s planter and Haruki’s Silver Wolf Short Sword.

The function had yet to find the armor Haruki was wearing.

“Could it be that it can’t enhance items past a certain level?”

That possibility existed since they could see items that weren’t displayed on the board.

However, they couldn’t be sure whether it would be possible to enhance them as the board’s rank increases or not.

They would need to wait until the board ranked up again before they could tell for sure.

— It would have been great if I could make the main armor I’m wearing stronger…

Haruki was a little disappointed because the items that seemed to be eligible for enhancement were low-level items.

Pulling himself together, Haruki taps his Kocco Feather Necklace, which was the easiest to understand from the list.

[Would you like to enhance Kokko Feather Necklace?]

[Enhancement level 0/3]

[Points needed: 50 pts]

[Y/N]

Since he was wearing his Kokko Feather Necklace, it would be difficult to experience its changes.

What kind of change would it make after it was enhanced…?

— Maybe if I enhance it, it will become a high-end accessory in one go!?

As long as you have enough points, you can turn any item into a high-end version of itself…

The excited Haruki’s heart raced to that assumption.

“He… Hehe…”

Haruki vigorously pressed [Ｙ] while fighting against the feeling that his heart was going to pop out of his chest.

The second level cost 100 points. The third level cost 150 points.

And then MAXing it out cost 200 points.

After spending a total of 500 points, Haruki enhanced the Kokko Feather Necklace to the maximum in one go with the momentum brought about by his excitement.

The Feather Necklace seemed to have changed somehow.

A feeble light shone from Haruki’s neck, and it felt hot.

“So, how about it!?”